<p>I plan on contacting my college's financial aid department but want to ask for an opinion here as well.
According to the FAFSA, my EFC is is 10,200. This number seems high to me, especially in contrast to friends and family. Without a lot of detail, my mother is a single parent raising two kids. I'm entering college this upcoming summer. Her AGI was $59,000. $41,000 was from her job, 11,000 child support, and 4,500 given to taxes(not eligible for 1040A/Z).</p>
<p>Obviously I can't request for someone to do a number crunch or something, since, I assume, each is different, etc. But I have friends and family who are in two parent households, some single children, who have lower EFCs than what I am being given. Is there something I'm missing here? </p>
<p>Sorry for the vagueness, typing on my phone.</p>
<p>Well…a couple of things. First, don’t try to compare your financial situation and aid to anyone elses…not worth doing. Concentrate on your own situation.</p>
<p>Married couples have a higher asset protection allowance than single parents…so that is one thing. </p>
<p>I have to say…your EFC sounds about right to me (as I would estimate it in my mind).</p>
<p>I’m assuming by your post that your mom cannot pay that EFC amount and you are hoping that it is high. I’m going to guess that it is not.</p>
<p>Her AGI should not include the child support. Child support is not taxable income so is not included in the AGI. It is required to be reported separately on FAFSA (as untaxed income), but do make sure it is not also included in the AGI. As the child support is untaxed, it will have a higher effect that taxed income as it will have no allowances (federal, state, or FICA) against it.</p>
<p>That said, the number seem a little high for the income and family situation. I ran your numbers through the finaid calculator and it came up with an EFC of around 8,000 (though that could vary based on your state and allowances for state taxes).</p>
<p>Does your Mom have assets? The asset protection for single parent families is much lower - less than half - than that for 2 parent families. Also do you have income or assets? Dependent students have a certain amount of income protection, but no asset protection at all. Student income and assets have a high impact on the EFC (50% of unprotected income, 20% of assets).</p>
<p>Will the child support go down once you turn 18 or graduate HS? If so, make sure you ask the school for a professional judgement adjustment to reflect loss of income.</p>
<p>Families with one parent do get hit harder for EFC since the calculations assume that it “costs more” to have 2 adults in the family (more necessary cars, more expenses, etc). The allowance “per parent” is higher than “per child”. So, a family with the same financial info with 2 parents and 1 child will have a lower EFC than a family with 1 parent and 2 children…even though their household sizes are 3 people each and financials are the same.</p>
<p>Does your mom contribute to a 401k or other retirement acct? If so, that is being added back in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.
Swim - The AIG & child support was just bad formatting on my part. Child supportw as not included. I forgot to mention my mother has roughly $13,000 between her checking and savings. I have no income and no assets.</p>
<p>Mom2ck - She does not contribute to a 401k</p>
<p>Your responses were a lot more detailed than I expected. Thanks for that!</p>