EFC seems low, can it be correct?

I completed FAFSA for my twins and EFC seems low, $13,900 for one and $13,200 for the other. Just want to
Make sure I completed corrrctly. I have combined income of $125,000 with $65,000 in investments. Did not include house value or 457 retirement account. Does this EFC sound possible?

Is this your Fafsa EFC, not the result of a college’s NPC?

Yes, it’s my FAFSA EFC, I’m not sure what the NPC is.

Yes…that sounds about right to me.

The NPC is the net price calculator. You might want to run each college NPC for your twins.

The FAFSA EFC you posted indicates they will not be eligible for any federally funded grant aid.

Each can take a $5500 Direct Loan.

Remember this is a minimum value not a maximum.

Welcome to the realities of funding for higher education in America. It is a shock, because it’s so different from when we went to school. Now you can see why so many people have high student loan debt or take out a second mortgage on their house.

You can quickly check it with the Collegeboard EFC calculator (federal methodology).

But it sounds possible to me.

Combined that is approx $27k, so that is probably correct per student.

Just be aware that that number is pretty meaningless for most schools. All it tells you is that your students don’t qualify for Pell and that they can take out their $5500 in loans. It isn’t a real number in terms of cost.

Most schools don’t subsidize student cost with institutional grants so school costs what it costs. For the majority of generous schools you will need to fill out the CSS which asks for a lot more financial info.

As others have said, the FAFSA EFC is just determining eligibility for Pell grants and needs to be completed to take out federal loans. But each college has their own formula for determining what aid you will actually get, and you need to run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on each college website to see how that might look.

Note that NPCs aren’t very accurate if parents are divorced, have a small business, or have rental property. Kid will often get less aid than is shown in those situations.

You may think that’s low because you may think that’s all you’ll have to pay. At most schools, you’ll still have to pay all or nearly all costs.

EFC is a misnomer. It’s not the amount that you’ll be expected to pay.

Run the Net Price Calculators on various college websites. Choose a variety of schools to run the Net Price Calculators…instate public, OOS publics, mid-level privates, low-level privates, and top privates.

Warning: schools like HYPS give super aid so don’t let their results let you think other schools will give similar aid.