<p>My parents are divorced and my mom only makes around 14000 a year? How is my EFC 11,500?! I made around 1000 last year working a job during the summer, but still how is my family expected to shell out 11,500 for my education? </p>
<p>--Update: I had accidentally put my owned property at 400,000 would that affect it? I notice now it says "without your house".</p>
<p>Anyone have any idea?</p>
<p>You probably made a mistake. Putting $400,000 under assets will increase your EFC dramatically. With an income of just $14000, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got an automatic 0 EFC.</p>
<p>Oh thank goodness! I was wondering how on earth I was supposed to pay that much! My friend has another question though, since her family inherited several houses from parents, why does owning property give her a high EFC? Do they expect her to liquidate them?</p>
<p>Assets are counted … they can be liquidated or borrowed against. The houses are assets, so they are counted.</p>
<p>Cosabelle…</p>
<p>Are you saying that your mom only earns about $14k per year, but she owns a home worth $400k? I don’t think FAFSA counts the home’s value, but it does seem odd that someone who earns so little has a home worth that much.<br>
Does she own it outright?
Aren’t the property taxes on that home high?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the whole FA process penalizes those who save and have high home equity. I guess they expect you to get a home-equity line of crdeit to pay for college expenses.</p>
<p>Do you live in the house? If so, FAFSA doesn’t include it in the asset calculations. If it is another house that she owns, then the $14K makes sense.</p>
<p>If the $400,000 home is your primary residence, you need to remove it from the FAFSA information. FAFSA does NOT include equity in your primary residence. So…go and amend that form immediately and RESUBMIT it to your colleges so that they have the correct, updated information.</p>
<p>We live in a territory so I’m guessing property taxes are different here? And my dad bought the house, before they got divorced.</p>