I recently filed my FAFSA and got my SAR for the following year (2018-2019). I noticed that my EFC for the next year is about 20k. My parents together make around 110k (80k from one, 30k from the other). There are 4 people in our household (parents, me, and sibling that is still in grade school). Does this EFC seem too high?
I ask this because the previous year (2017-2018) my parents made 80k (50k from one, 30k from the other). With the 30k income jump, my EFC has doubled from 10k to 20k. Is it normal for my EFC to jump 10k from a 30k income gain?
Also, if my school’s cost of attendance (tuition, books and supplies, personal expenses, etc) is 18.5k (11/18.5k is tuition) and I currently receive 8k in financial aid grants with the 80k family income, should I expect any grants from financial aid in the coming year (2018-2019)?
It doesn’t seem out of line to have a EFC of $20k on a $110k income (and you, the student, might have made more money last year too or have more in savings). Make sure there were no errors. If one parent had a $30k increase, was there a job change, and if so, was there a 401k roll over? Those can cause errors.
We don’t know how that grant was awarded this year. You might get the same, but you might not.
If your COA for 2018/19 is lower than your FAFSA EFC, you might get no need based grant aid for next year.
But you can still take your student loan (unsubsidized) and get a non federal work study job on campus.
Plan on working as much as possible this summer too,
Do you get any merit aid?
Find out if your school or major department has scholarships for existing students, if your GPA is good you might qualify for some and the application deadline might come up soon!
I’ll definitely look into merit aids (which I currently am not receiving) and scholarships that I can possibly apply for. Had a feeling I won’t get much need based grants (if any). I calculated my EFC and seems to be close to 20k also so seems correct. I’ll for sure look into working as much as possible in the summer. Just worried if I spend too much time working a job that does not relate to my career, could bite me in the butt later (unless I find an internship or job that does relate to my career).