<p>The estimated EFC that came back with my Fafsa confirmation page seems high to me, I'm sure most people feel this way regardless of the number, but the estimate is about 28% of our AGI, does this sound reasonable or did we make an error on our filing?</p>
<p>Comments?</p>
<p>that’s about right. Sadly! </p>
<p>I’m guessing that your income is around $100k (plus or minus)? When it’s higher, the EFC is about 33% of AGI. When it’s lower, it can be about 22-25% of AGI (or lower if you’re really low income).</p>
<p>The idea is that parents are supposed to pay for college using: savings, current income, and future income (loans). so, it’s not like you’re supposed to pay for all of it our of current income.</p>
<p>And…since most schools do NOT meet need, you may find yourself paying for ALL costs except for a student loan. Those with highish EFCs often get no free money at all.</p>
<p>Mine was about 24 percent of AGI. So an EFC of 28 percent doesn’t sound crazy to me (based on my own result; I imagine significant assets could bump up the percentage). Here is a link to a complicated document covering the formula (from the fed’s Information for Financial Aid Professionals site): <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf</a>. I expect some helpful people will come along to supply more useful links.</p>
<p>If your EFC is too high and/or your child could be attending a school that doesn’t “meet need,” then you need to…</p>
<p>1) Look at schools where the COA is less than your EFC.</p>
<p>2) Look at schools where your child will get big merit for stats (big enough that when subtracted from COA that your remaining costs are less than EFC). For instance, if your EFC is $25k, and the school costs $35k, if your child gets a $20k per year merit scholarship, then you’ll only pay $15k…a nice cut in EFC! :)</p>
<p>3) Commute to a local school that costs less than EFC.</p>
<p>
We must be really low income as ours is 6.7%. 
I do have two in college so I guess it’s more like 13%.</p>
<p>Our EFC is 31% - ouch! I think we need to drop SU from D’s list of choices if she gets accepted tomorrow. I hear they give very little merit aid…</p>