<p>I am having a hard time understanding how the EFC is calculated. Ours is very high. I have not found anything with real insight on the college board website or the usual college prep materials. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has spent some time studying this.</p>
<p>Here is the FAFSA formula
<a href="http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/attachments/0809EFCFormulaGuide.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/attachments/0809EFCFormulaGuide.pdf</a></p>
<p>The EFC is based on a combination of parent and student income and assets. The main formulas are on pages 9 & 10. There are some special situations parents incomes below certain levels ($50,000 and $20,000). But generally follow the formula.</p>
<p>Parent Income - there is a certain amount of income protection which is on table A3 /page18 - it is based on number in household and number in college.</p>
<p>Parent Assets - certain assets are protected (primary home and retirement assets). Over that there is an asset protection based on number of parents and the age of the older parent. table A6/page 19</p>
<p>Student income - the first $3080 is protected plus a little more for tax paid and an allowance or state taxes. After that 50% goes to the EFC. </p>
<p>Student assets - no protection. 20% goes to the EFC.</p>
<p>I don't know how the CSS/profile EFC is calculated.</p>
<p>Thanks. That link was helpful. It seems to allow for deductions and calculations that are not otherwise apparent on the FAFSA. I caught a mistake I made in putting in the date we were married and, after correcting it, that lowered the EFC. We're still trying to figure out whether we are doing this as best it can be done.</p>
<p>I am confused. Changing your wedding date changed your EFC?!</p>
<p>Yea - I was confused about how that would change your EFC also.</p>
<p>I also want to know how the wedding date changed the EFC!!</p>
<p>Swimcastmom, I have a question I would rather not post here. If you would be willing to answer it via email, could you send me an email?</p>
<p>thumper I pm'd you</p>
<p>ACLUmom are you the student or the parent? The reason I'm asking is because I thought that the FASFA only asked for the student's marriage date not the parents.</p>
<p>I have a copy of my FAFSA - under STEP 4 (Q56-89) first questions are parents marital status and parents marital status date.</p>
<p>I too am curious why changing the marriage date would affect the EFC.</p>
<p>oops sorry I see it now. Now it definately is weird that a marital status would change EFC</p>
<p>Princeton Review's Paying for College Without Going Broke may be helpful for a high EFC.</p>
<p>I know that the wedding date is there, but I figured it was more of an informational item. I didn't think it came into play. I can't find anything in the EFC formula that uses it.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom:
Thanks for posting the worksheet link. Our 2008 ETC actually increased from last year to $62k+...staggering, isn't it? But my husband and I converted a huge sum of traditional IRA to a Roth: which skews our AGI without acknowledging that the money will go right back into a protected retirement fund.</p>
<p>Anyways, I was able to run the numbers with and without the conversion and then speak with our financial aid counselor about our options. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Oh - ouch archiemom</p>
<p>according to finaid a Roth rollover is a special circumstance </p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Professional Judgment | Special Circumstances</p>
<p>
[quote]
Other common special circumstances include:</p>
<pre><code>* Death, disability or serious illness of a wage-earner, or the wage-earner becomes mentally or physically incapacitated.
* Unusual capital gains.
* Roth IRA rollovers.
[/quote]
</code></pre>
<p>Yeah, but when I spoke with our school finaid counselor and explained the circumstances, he discouraged us from further paperwork. Even disallowing the "income" from the conversion, we would still only be in the subsidized Stafford loan range, no real additional free aid. We did not use last year's unsubsidized loan and won't use any additional loans, at least not his year, as we have saved for his college expenses since day one.</p>
<p>I just wanted to express my appreciation for the resources you provided.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies. We're still trying to figure this out. The FAFSA hotline has not been helpful. Have any of you had help from the financial aid offices -- I'm wondering whether it's worth trying to walk through the FAFSA form with one of them -- who has accepted our D - to see if we made any errors along the way.</p>
<p>Re: the FAFSA...why don't you print out the FAFSA worksheet, fill in THOSE numbers and then check your FAFSA to see if the numbers are the same. The worksheet does (in my opinion) a good job of explaining what the item is, where to find it on your tax return or W-2 form, etc. Perhaps this will help you determine if your FAFSA is filled out correctly.</p>
<p>I will say...MANY folks find their EFC to be remarkably high.</p>