<p>Everywhere I look, they say the EFC is capped at $99,999. Every chart comparing income and expected EFC are capped at an EFC at $99,999. My EFC according to FAFSA is $294,000! Also, my families adjusted gross income last year was $138,000. They have saved their whole lives to live a comfortable retirement and they invest a lot. Why are they punished for saving! The EFC for most people in our income bracket is like $60,000. Does no one else save for retirement and invest their money?!?!</p>
<p>At this point it does not matter if your EFC is $60,000 or $294,000 when most colleges don’t cost over 60k. The fact is your parents obviously saved for your college as we did for our kids, so it is just time to write the check. You can also do what our kids did and go to…<strong>what for the shock</strong>…STATE SCHOOL.</p>
<p>Apparently they added an extra digit to the EFC number so they can now be six figures instead of five.</p>
<p>Are your parents’ retirement monies in authorized retirement accounts (IRA/TSA type accounts)? If so, did you put the VALUE of those accounts on your FAFSA? The balance IN those accounts should not be included…only the contribution from 2013 is added back in as income.</p>
<p>It looks to me like you added a zero someplace. Or put something in incorrectly. Print out your FAFSA and go LINE BY LINE.</p>
<p>Make sure each entry is correct. Also, make sure you didn’t put your PARENT income into the student field for income. That ONLY goes in the parent section.</p>
<p>If the retirement savings are in retirement accounts (such as IRAs and 401ks), they are protected assets and do not have to be reported on FAFSA. If they are in regular accounts then they must be reported. The maximum percentage of reportable assets that go to the EFC is 5.6%. If your assets are increasing the EFC by 234000 because of assets, that would imply assets of over $4 million. </p>
<p>Anyway, an EFC of 60,000 would make you ineligible for aid pretty much anywhere.</p>
<p>Apparantly the maximum EFC has changed this year.</p>
<p>We have seen other posts this year with EFCs in excess of $99999. It seems that is no longer the upper limit. But with an efc that high with that income either there are enormous assets or a mistake was made in entering data. Any assets in formal retirement accounts should not be entered on fafsa. If I didn’t make an error in my quick calculation it would take $2.75M in assets to increase efc from $60k to $294k.</p>
<p>Or maybe the efc is 29400 which makes sense based on income provided. </p>
<p>Your parents retirement money if in a qualifed plan for such should not have been included for FAFSA EFC purposes. Do they have the money in 401Ks, IRAs or other retirement funds? </p>
<p>Yes, non qualified savings are tapped after an exclusions allowance based on number of dependents and age of the oldest parent at 5.6%. You think they should not be at all? Where do you draw the line for this? Those with very low incomes do get all assets exempt. Terms like “comfortable” and " a lot" are very subjective, and with formulas a line has to be drawn. You think someone with billions should have it exempt? How about millions? Where would you draw the line? </p>
<p>To answer your question, yes, we save for retirement and invest our money. Some in qualified vehicles, some in our home equity, neither of which FAFSA counts, and some that is counted. As a result of our concern for retirement, among other things, we have limited what our contribution for college can be, so my kids did not consider going to $60K schools without merit money in the picture.</p>
<p>And as Collegeshopping points out, once the EFC is over the COA (cost of attendance) of a college, it doesn’t make a difference how much over it is. You aren’t going to get financial aid for that school. Schools that just use EFC don’t guarantee to meet need anyways, and often gap, so even having need is no guarantee of getting it met. </p>
<p>It is most likely you made a mistake. Go back over the form and make sure you made no mistakes.</p>
<p>". My EFC according to FAFSA is $294,000! Also, my families adjusted gross income last year was $138,000. They have saved their whole lives to live a comfortable retirement and they invest a lot. Why are they punished for saving! The EFC for most people in our income bracket is like $60,000. Does no one else save for retirement and invest their money?!?!"</p>
<p>Most people have retirements in protected accounts. Did your parents report their 401k’s or similar? If so, that’s a mistake.</p>
<p>However, if their “retirement” is in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc that aren’t official retirement accounts then those are regular assets and aren’t protected.</p>
<p>Unless you’ve made a mistake, your parents have a HUGE amount in assets. </p>
<p>"The EFC for most people in our income bracket is like $60,000.:</p>
<p>then what are you complaining about? If your EFC was sixty thousand then you still wouldn’t get aid.</p>
<p>My dad refigured the number for our total investments and real estate (not counting your parents house) from $600k to $425k when we realized that IRAs don’t count towards that number but he never mentioned 401k and I’ve heard my parents talk about them before so I know we have them. I will try to get them removed. At this point, I’m not too worried about financial aid seeing as my decision now is between the USAFA and state school on full ROTC scholarship (Navy, pending Air Force). I may also transfer my scholarship to Notre Dame or Stanford pending acceptance (which is unlikely, at least to Stanford). I would love any advice on deciding between the two, it’s really tearing me apart right now. </p>
<p>Your parents do not get punished for their saving habit. They are indeed very successful financially that you don’t have a need for financial aid. Other people in the same income range may at best only get some loan anyway which would be their saving from the future.</p>
<p>So your EFC will probably by 5% of the change in assets counting towards FAFSA and most other fin aid calculators. </p>
<p>My son would love to go to either school, but he’d pick Stanford in an instant. So much more to do in the Bay area. I have a brother who lives there so my kids are familiar with what’s out there and one son lived there for about 6 months and though he turned down a job between that and the midwest, it was purely a monetary decision. Same salary would not go far at all there. But for college, it would be wonderful to enjoy that area for about the same price as the midwest where it’s a lot less expensive to live when trying to get buy on a newly grad salary that most even lucky grads get.</p>
<p>Your total assets if $425,000 would generate $25,200 or so of the EFC. Add that to the amount generated by $138,000 income…about $40,000…and your total EFC would be in the $62,000 range.</p>
<p>Something is still not right with your FAFSA calculated EFC. Go through EVERY single item.</p>
<p>One more question…is there any savings in YOUR name?</p>
<p>ETA…if your EFC is $60,000 or so, you wouldn’t get any more or less aid than if it were $300,000. You would get NO need based aid.</p>
<p>It will be difficult to transfer your Navy ROTC scholarship to either Stanford or Notre Dame. However, if you are looking for a “tie-breaker” in case you attempt to transfer, then keep in mind that the Navy ROTC program at Notre Dame is on campus, while Stanford NROTC is actually located at Berkeley which is about an hour away (even in good traffic, and you would need to cross a major bridge over the bay). That two hour round trip, at least once a week, could be a huge burden.</p>
<p>Air Force ROTC is not any better for Stanford. Even harder to transfer the scholarship, because Air Force mostly limits scholarships to in-state universities. Plus, the AFROTC unit for Stanford is 15 miles away at San Jose State. Not so big a burden, but might still need a car. AFROTC is on campus at Notre Dame too (but, remember, the Air Force probably will not give you a scholarship to ND either).</p>
<p>In sum, if you want Air Force, then go to the academy (it sounds like maybe you have already been offered an appointment). If you want Navy, you can try to go transfer to Notre Dame, but don’t plan on it.</p>
<p>I concur with NROTCgrad that the commute to the Berkeley ROTC can be onerous. Before youmake any decisions , get in touch with some students who are actually living that life at Stanford, You will likely car pool, that’s what kids we know at some school that do not have the ROTC on site do, but Stanford to Berkeley is a nasty commute, though it is in reverse of the traffic. Talk to those doing it. </p>
<p>My nephew was accepted NROTC for a school, but not to the school, WLed, and they refused to budge by May 1. He had to scramble and switch the NROTC to his second choice school and was lucky to get a slot. When he cleared the WaitList a few weeks later, (yes, they are boneheads, I agree,), he could not get his slot back at the first choice NROTC site. He then tried to transfer a year later, and still no opening at that site, though he got into the school. So bear in mind that coordinating the ROTC and school acceptances can be an issue.</p>
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<p>Your EFC isnt based on your tax bracket. Its based on your income, assets, family size, number in school, etc. </p>
<p>I plug 140K into an EFC estimator for family of 4, no savings, and I get an EFC of 29K</p>
<p>Either you are doing something wrong or you are leaving something out of the discussion. </p>
<p>I was saying that the average EFC is around $60k for an income of $140k. The difference must come in that my parents have saved their whole lives and are now going to be punished for their frugality.</p>
<p>“…my parents have saved their whole lives and are now going to be punished for their frugality.”</p>
<p>Yes, it is unfair but there is no point in focusing on it. I suggest that you continue the family tradition of frugality and enroll in a college that you can afford. Also explore merit scholarships. </p>
<p>The following website lists the best college values:
<a href=“http://www.collegefactual.com/rankings/best-colleges-for-money/”>http://www.collegefactual.com/rankings/best-colleges-for-money/</a></p>
<p>Say your EFC was $20,000 because your parents had spent every dime on vacations and houses with granite countertops and fancy cars and your EFC was based on salary only. Your reward would be loans, not ‘free’ financial aid.</p>
<p>You aren’t being punished for saving. You are avoiding loans.</p>