<p>My stepdad made 57,000 in 2008. My mom doesnt work so didnt contribute anything. We dont own anything and have barely anything in savings. Why is my efc 9223?</p>
<p>Because of what your dad makes. The more you make the more the colleges want from you. So you would have to pay that.</p>
<p>A lot of EFCs are about 1/4-1/3 of your annual income, so that actually sounds about right. Most people are shocked by their EFCs.</p>
<p>For that income, if it is all earned income, it seems a little bit high based on average taxes etc, but not very. EFC is based mainly on income. There is some income protection based on the number in household and the number in college. After that anywhere from 22% to 47% (as income goes higher - but not very high) is considered available for the EFC.</p>
<p>Is that the total income before deductions? Contributions to retirement accounts are not shown in the AGI but are added back to income for calculating the EFC. Also Is the income all income earned from working? If so did you make sure to answer the question about how much of the AGI is income earned from working? The answer to that question is used to calculate allowances for FICA which is only charged on income earned from working. Leaving that question blank will make the EFC higher as it would mean no allownace for FICA would be in the formula.</p>
<p>Did you have any income or assets in your own name? That can make an impact.</p>
<p>FAFSA is not designed to be fair, just equally unfair. You can recheck your numbers online but I know that FAFSA comes as a shock to just about everyone who is remotely in the middle class. If it helps any, our family had a much larger EFC. Felt like I was run over by a truck and then the truck backed up and ran over me again.
Because your asking your “How can this be” question so close to May 1st - you must be in a panic but all I can say is to remember that your EFC is just a number and you should do everything you can to make the finances (loans/grants/scholarships) work for you. Sorry - I feel your pain…</p>
<p>The government assumes your parents will be using past, current and future earnings to help pay for school. At 18, a $9200 EFC could have been met by saving less than $200/month or by saving less than that, adjusting your current lifestyle to make tuition payments, and taking a loan for the balance. It’s not that unrealistic and you can borrow a good portion of that as well.</p>
<p>"If it helps any, our family had a much larger EFC. Felt like I was run over by a truck and then the truck backed up and ran over me again. "</p>
<p>ROFL… agreed. Thanks for the chuckle.</p>
<p>let’s not forget EFC = Every Freaking Cent</p>
<p>let me add, if the EFC was my total outlay, I’d be a happy camper.</p>
<p>I think the EFC is too high for that income. Like swimcatsmom said, other things can change how it’s factored, but our income is similar and our EFC is lower. Last year with an AGI of $56,810 our EFC was 5495. That was with one child in college, one at home, both parents over 50. We had no significant assets, retirement accounts, investments, or anything aside from our primary home, which isn’t counted for FAFSA.</p>
<p>So I think you should check your numbers again, and perhaps ask someone at your college’s financial aid office what might account to the high EFC. They may be able to give you an easy answer just by looking at your FAFSA.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about a college that, in addition to the FAFSA, uses the CSS Profile form or any forms of their own in calculating aid, then it’s a completely different story. The amount of money they expect from you and your family could be whatever they determine it to be according to their own policies.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about a FAFSA-only school, while your EFC seems high, that might not be the only problem. Even if you had a lower EFC it doesn’t mean all colleges will expect you to pay only that. Very frequently students are told that their EFC is “x”, but they still have to come up with 3 times “x” to pay the actual bill.</p>
<p>the fact that only 1 parent is working means there was less income protection used in the formula.</p>
<p>I am a single parent, AGI just under 50K and the portion of my EFC from my income was over 9K. My son made 11K last year so part of his earnings puts our EFC for this year at 12K</p>
<p>'rent2 your EFC seems low on that income (I guess having 4 people in the family does that)… I’m 48 for fafsa calculation purposes (birthday next month)</p>
<p>sueinphilly, our FAFSA EFC for this academic year (2008-9, and based on 2007 taxes, etc) was as I posted above, 5495, but it was also with just one parent working.</p>
<p>Interesting that you think ours was low for our income. Maybe it has to do with our ages (54 and 55) and having two kids… I don’t know. For the coming academic year (2009-10) when we’ll have two kids in college, our EFC came out to something like 3900 for each of them, so adding them together our combined EFC went up to 7800 – considerably higher than the 5495 for the current academic year. Our AGI went up by just under 6K last year, though, so I guess they figure that ought to increase our EFC by roughly $2300.</p>
<p>This year I have gone back to work (part-time for now), and it remains to be seen how that income is going to affect our EFC for the 2010-11 year. Scares me a little, but with all the expenses we just couldn’t cut it on one income anymore, plus with the kids both in college I’m not really a stay-at-home mom anymore… or well, yeah, I guess I was but just not staying at home with any kids!</p>
<p>I’m surprised your EFC was so high with an AGI under 50K. Perhaps it’s your youth!</p>
<p>Age does not come into the parent income protection allowances (though it does in asset protection). But the number in the family makes a difference to the protected income allowances. For instance a household of 4 with 1 in college gets $24k in income protection while a household of 2 with 1 in college gets $16k in income protection. That $8k less in protected income can make quite a difference. </p>
<p>Weirdly the income protection actually goes down when 2 are in college.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. It would seem the income protection should, at the very least, stay the same with 2 in college as with 1 in college/1 at home. I wonder why it goes down… hmm. Ah well, I find I can’t grasp all this terribly well. I just put in the numbers and see what it tells me each year. GAHHH</p>
<p>^Because they want you to spend more of your income on college, maybe? They think the care and feeding of a teenager is $2700? Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure my electric and grocery bills will go down by at least that much!</p>
<p>What’s really weird is that the asset protection allowance for single parents is only 40%of the married allowance! What could be the reasoning behind this, I wonder? If those include liquid savings for emergency fund, job loss protection, home repair/maintenance, etc. and single parents obviously have only themselves to rely on, it doesn’t follow that theie protected savings should be even 50% of what 2 people would have…I’d say 60-75% would be a more reasonable figure!</p>