<p>I'm just wondering in general what the EFC is relative to income... because I feel the estimated EFC I got was very high ($10,288). Gross income is ~$71,000, so that EFC is already 15% of gross income, and over 20% of income after tax. How can anyone expect my family to pay that much? 20% or higher of income?</p>
<p>We have basically zero assets, I don't remember the FAFSA asking about assets however... I do remember it asking if our net assets were above $64,000 and I checked no, but there was no specific numbers for bank accounts/etc I gave. Is that right? I know with the CSS Profile there were specific questions about investments and bank account balances.</p>
<p>Is it possible that colleges using the CSS Profile will come up with a lower number than the FAFSA because of lack of assets? I don't see how anyone could expect a family with zero assets to pay 20%+ of income.</p>
<p>I posted a similar question last night. Mine came in at 50% of net income and about 27% of gross income - so I think yours is probably right. </p>
<p>As I’m sure others will answer the EFC is supposed to reflect past, current, and future earnings. Past is the savings you should have for college. Current is your current income. And future is loans. As harse as it sounds they don’t care that you haven’t saved. I’m in the same place - although I do have some saved - just not enough for the school that my daughter really really wants to attend. The advice I got last night was either get some merit aid or lower your cost of attendance by having your child attend a lower cost college option.</p>
<p>10,000 for an income of $70,000 sounds about right. Most people are surprised by their EFCs. You will not be eligible for federal grant aid with an EFC of 10,000.</p>
<p>FAFSA usually asks for $ amounts of assets. I don’t know what the question about assets being over $64,000 is, unless that is something new.</p>
<p>Don’t feel bad our efc is 14,100 with gross income $81,000(includes 401k deposits…no pension here). We also had medical expenses of $7300 this year. FAFSA doesn’t care about medical expenses…</p>
<p>High medical expenses are something you can get a special circumstances adjustment for. You have to ask for this through the school. the medical expenses have to be higher than the amount for medical built into the income protection allowances. With $7300 in expenses you should be able to get some sort of adjustment.</p>
<p>^When I filled out the css profile I indicated that our medical expenses were 7300. My css profile 9000(parent efc), 2440(son efc-he did not work), 3000 loan, 2000 work study, for a total of 16440. This amount still seems high…but I see everybody is in the same boat…unfortunate. To top it off we live in a high cost area.</p>
<p>Do psychology expenses count as medical expenses? My family is paying 150$ per week for a shrink ($7800 a year). Insurance doesn’t help us with that and it is REALLY adding up.</p>
<p>I would think they would. Can’t hurt to ask.</p>
<p>When an adjustment is made for medical expenses (we had one several years ago) it is not a $ for $ adjustment to the EFC. If approved, the FA officer go into your FAFSA and reduce the income by the approved adjustment. Then the numbers go through the EFC formula again and produce a new EFC.</p>
<p>My EFC is 36% of pre-tax income if my assets aren’t included. Including parent assets brings the EFC up to 43% of pre-tax income. </p>
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<p>The key here is calculating your AAI (Adjusted available income). If it is $29,301 or more, your EFC would be $7,926 + 47% of AAI over $29,300. Using your numbers and making some tax rate assumptions, here’s what I get:</p>
<p>Parent income 71000</p>
<p>Adjustments:
Parent FICA 5432
Parent federal income tax 7100
state income tax 4970
Parent income protection allowance (assumes family of 3 with 1 in college) 20210
Employment expense allowance 3500</p>
<p>Total allowances 41211</p>
<p>Available income 29788</p>
<p>Parent contribution from assets 0</p>
<p>Parent contribution ($7,926 + 47% of AAI over $29,300) 8156
EFC: $8156</p>
<p>This is 11% of gross income.</p>
<p>Your original estimate seems high - can you calculate again using the formula in the 2011 guide?</p>
<p>A family of four is basically expected to live off of 42,000/yr. FAFSA expects 47% of any amount above the 42,000 to be available to pay college tuition.</p>
<p>Assest protection varies according to age. FAFSA expects a percentage(approx. 12%) of assests above protection limit to be available to pay for college tuition.</p>
<p>Add those two figures and you will get a good estimate of efc.</p>
<p>That would be a simple way to calculate it. It would also be completely inaccurate in the majority of cases.</p>
<p>Income protection for a family of 4 with one in college is under $25,000. And asset protection varies according to the number of parents and the age of the older parent.</p>
<p>^ Agree. Oh sorry I forgot the first 29,300 of available income is charged at 7926. I was simplifying for a family of four with 2 parents and age of older parent being 50.</p>
<p>What difference does EFC really make if you’re not eligible for federal money, and you don’t get into a school that meets full need? Don’t the other schools do what they want? Maybe that’s just what I tell myself …</p>