<p>This is a common post on CC, but anyway...my family's EFC is pretty high: $23,000. My parents are divorced, so my mom's data was used on the FAFSA. A 61-year-old minister, she makes $30,000 working at a church, but another $20,000 for self-employment (about $10,000 of that money is donated to the church, to help with its plan to buy its own building). My dad is 63, retired, barely pays minimum child support and nevers answers questions about his financial situation. He claims that his girlfriend financially supports him, yet when asked in private she totally denies this. $20,000 have been saved for my college education--a lot of it was wiped out a couple of years ago. How can I present my situation best to the colleges I've applied to? On the CSS/PROFILE, my mom wrote a letter...should she do this again? I don't want her to be working until she hits 80...</p>
<p>That seems high for FAFSA EFC, based on the info you gave. Does the church provide her housing? That might make the difference. Even so, it seems high. I suspect something may have been entered incorrectly. Double check all your info against your mom's taxes. Does she have a lot in savings? Do YOU have a high income and/or a lot in savings? Something is pushing up the EFC more than I would expect based on your info.</p>
<p>is the number that comes up as the efc on fafsa the amount that someone should expect to pay (assuming the school meets 100% of need)? How big of a difference should i expect between the fafsa efc and what i actually end up paying?</p>
<p>kelsmom: turns out its social security benefits. thanks for the help! =)</p>
<p>Bicyclekick, it depends entirely on the school and its financial aid policies. In general, though, you should probably not think of the FAFSA EFC as what you should expect to pay. It is a number that determines your eligibility for federal financial aid, and not necessarily anything else.</p>
<p>There are also very few schools if any (?) that meet 100% of need and don't require Profile or their own forms that take into account things like home equity that FAFSA doesn't.</p>
<p>That EFC seems really high, unless there are significant assets. Have you checked all of the numbers? (One missing decimal point could cause a lot of trouble.)</p>
<p>The OP has already indicated that social security benefits figure into this. Some schools may consider a letter, others may feel that instead of donating the 10K to the church she will have to forgo that donation to pay the EFC.<br>
Hopefully you applied to a range of schools and will have the ability to compare financial aid packages.</p>
<p>Casey - Untaxed social security benefits should NOT be reported on FAFSA - this was a change to the 09/10 regs. Questions 47i (student) and 95i (parent) specifically state to exclude this from your reported income! This includes SS disability - I called the FAFSA helpline to doublecheck when we did ours. If you included them, you'll need to go back in and submit a correction.</p>
<p>Not sure how this is handled on the Profile though.</p>
<p>If untaxed, SS benefits are not reported thus are not included in the EFC formula. The taxed benefits, though, will increase AGI & can push the EFC up. Casey, were they taxed or untaxed? If untaxed, did you correct it - and how much of a difference did it make?</p>