<p>Quick question. I did my fafsa and got my efc calculation. Is this the amount of money my husband and I are suppose to contribute or does it include my daughter, too?</p>
<p>EFC is a misnomer. </p>
<p>It is often the MINIMUM that the family has to pay. Schools are NOT required to give you the rest of the money.</p>
<p>So…say your EFC is $15,000 and the school costs $45,500</p>
<p>The school might ONLY give you a $5500 student loan and expect your family to pay the other $40k…even if your EFC is only $15k.</p>
<p>I see that your D is applying to CSS Profile schools. If so, then FAFSA EFC is rather meaningless EXCEPT to see if you qualify for Pell Grants and unsub loans and work study.</p>
<p>If your EFC is beyond about $6k, then you won’t get a Pell Grant.</p>
<p>For the rest of “free money” consideration, the school is going to use CSS Profile.</p>
<p>Thank you. My daughter’s number 1 choice meets 100% of need so hopefully they will be close to the EFC, depending on the CSS/Profile info.</p>
<p>Your family contribution as computed by any given school based on your Profile may be higher OR lower than your FAFSA EFC. It will often be higher if you have a lot of equity in your primary home, which is not considered on the FAFSA. Conversely, if you have low assets relative to your income, high medical or even private school expenses (among other factors) it may be lower.</p>
<p>Many people have said your Profile-based family contribution will be higher if you own your own business, but that was not our experience. Then again, my DH’s business has very minimal business deductions. In some cases a school will “add back in” some of the deductions they don’t think are “fair” – particularly expenses people with “regular” jobs also have and don’t get to deduct.</p>