<p>so my fafsa says i have an EFC of 47? is that how much i am expected to pay??? it isnt that my parents make a low income... they do, m dad does very well for himself, we live in a very well of neighborhood. my mom is retired, but there are 9 kids in my fam - none adopted and all from my parents, no divorce or anything - were catholic... haha. but um yeah, do schools look at that? i hear that they evaluate it based on parents income and how much school costs not my siblings and such like that...</p>
<p>Yes, that is how much you are expected to pay and your parents by the government's standards. It's a weird formula and school's use their own formula as well. Your school may make you pay less or more.</p>
<p>well i would hope less - paying less then 47$ for school especially U of M or ND would be awesome - i would love it.</p>
<p>A school does not have to meet your total cost of attendance either...so remember that.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>so my fafsa says i have an EFC of 47? is that how much i am expected to pay?>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>You will be expected to pay at least that amount. The actual amount of aid you receive will depend on the policies of the specific school(s). Some schools meet full need, others do not. If the school meets full need they may still expect you to make a student contribution even though your EFC is lower. Some schools expect a student contribution of a couple thousand dollars (per year). You really need to look at the colleges to which you are applying. If you are applying to a private school with a large endowment that meets full need, you financial aid package will be good. If you are applying to a public school without much of an endowment that does not distribute a lot of institutional funds and does not meet full need, you may not get much more than the maximum federal aid which isn't enough to fully pay for a year of tuition and room/board at most four year schools.</p>
<p>The other thing you mention is your EFC being $47...but you don't mention whether you have completed the Profile. That looks at other assets besides your family income.</p>
<p>With nine children, your have a family number of 11 people. That will be considered when the financial aid calculations are done.</p>
<p>No it does not neccessarily mean you will only be expected to pay $47. A lot depends on whether the school promises to meet full need. Many do not. </p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is mainly used for calculating federal aid. Federal aid is not enough to pay for most schools even State Universities. Aid may consist of Grants, loans, Work Study and a gap (unmet need). For instance my daughter goes to a State U and has an EFC of 0 and federal grant aid covers less that 1/2 - closer to 1/3 - of the cost of her school. She gets a full Pell, SEOG and the sophomore ACG which is pretty good for federal aid. Fortunately she has good merit aid so, with work study, her loans are minimal.</p>
<p>Schools that promise to meet full need often ask for additional financial aid applications such as CSS/profile. CSS asks for a lot more information than FAFSA. Schools that ask for both FAFSA and CSS use FAFSA for feseral aid and CSS for their own institutional aid.</p>
<p>When you say your FAFSA EFC is 47 do you mean one of the forecasters or calculators? The FAFSA for the 2009-2010 school year is not available until January 1st. If you have completed the 2008-2009 FAFSA it will not get you financial aid for 2009-2010.</p>
<p>I assume you put your family info into a financial aid calculator or the FAFSA4Caster. This will give you an idea of what the FAFSA EFC will actually be. You will do it "for real" after January 1st, using info from this year's taxes. Make sure you do everything correctly, so that your EFC is right - if you make a mistake, it will be caught & your EFC can change - that isn't much fun if you were expecting a better financial package than you end up with.</p>
<p>Let's assume your EFC really is $47. Yes, the fact that your family has 9 kids makes your EFC lower than it would be if you had 2 kids in your family. After all, your parents have a lot of expenses associated with all those kids! But you need to understand what an EFC actually is ... it is not what you actually will pay. It's a number used to award federal financial aid. If it is $47, you will be eligible for the full Pell grant ($4731 this year), as well as for any other grants that are available to Pell-eligible students (ACG, SEOG, state grants, etc.). You will also be eligible for federal work study and federal loans. You can be awarded a combination of aid - scholarships, grants, work study, and loans - up to the Cost of Attendance (COA) minus your EFC. The COA-EFC-any non need based aid (merit scholarships) = Need.</p>
<p>Here is the catch ... schools don't have to award enough money to totally cover your Need. So ... that means that you might have to come up with a lot more money than the $47 EFC ... and you might have a lot of loans in your financial aid package (loans are financial aid). Notre Dame states that they are committed to meeting need, but I don't know how much in loans they put into a package. UMich is a public school, so it's not a for-sure that your need would be met. If you are in-state, though, it can be a great deal - very low EFC students who are in-state can get excellent financial aid (University</a> of Michigan Office of Financial Aid: Grants). OOS students at UMich won't get the same need based aid, but they do have opportunities for scholarships.</p>
<p>Both UM and ND require the FAFSA and the Profile. In order to be considered for UM scholarships, you must submit the Profile "as soon as possible after Oct. 1" (now!).</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
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<p>This is from another thread by the OP. It makes me think the OP is OOS for U Mich. If that is the case, getting full need met is unlikely, I would think...unless she is a top candidate. </p>
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<blockquote> <p>i am slated to transfer to UM next semester but really want to go to ND instead.>> From where is the OP transfering??</p> </blockquote>
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<p>another public school in Michigan and i am instate - or atleast i hope they put me as instate - they made me fill out the residency classification form b/c i was born in VA but i have lived in MI for 18 yrs now - sorry i wasn't really pay attention when i wrote all that earlier. so 20K</p>
<p>also clarification - my dad does well for himself - no details, but we live in a very well of area in michigan middle class upper tier of that</p>
<p>U Mich is a great school. Your instate cost of attendance is really quite a bargain considering that the school is very highly regarded. Re: aid...UMich will require the Profile, and Fafsa. Your family will have to put their properties and trust values on those forms (for both you and the parents). I believe (and someone can correct me) that the value of trusts for siblings under 19 who are not college students also needs to be listed on the Profile. It doesn't matter if your family plans to spend this money or not..that is up to you to decide...but it will be figured in the computation for financial aid.</p>
<p>What was your aid package for Western Michigan? To be honest, it's not likely to be very much different for UMich. If you applied for aid at Western Michigan, you should already have a sense of what your aid will look like.</p>
<p>I just noticed that you are planning to transfer to UMich in January (is that correct?). Are you sure that UMich even gives financial aid to transfer students enrolling mid-year?</p>
<p>You will carry over your Michigan Merit scholarship money. There most likely will not be any grants left at UM for this year, and there may not be any work study left to award. Loans are likely to be it for you.</p>
<p>However, if you are eligible for Pell, you'll get that ... as well as ACG, MI Competitive Scholarship, etc. if you are eligible for those. I am confused, though. Did you not complete the FAFSA for Western? Do you not have any aid there? I don't get it. If you truly do have an EFC of $47, how did you pay for Western without any aid? You can't change the info on your FAFSA for UM in January. Whatever is on your FAFSA for fall at WMU is what will be sent to UM for January.</p>
<p>The cost of attendance at UM isn't that much higher than it is at WMU. Why the concern about cost? I really am confused about your situation and what you want to know ...</p>
<p>mostly has to deal with ND - u of m is not the issue - though hypothetically getting none and paying 20k is a lot - i would much rather pay less and paying far less then the 50k is my concern assuming i get in and go there next semester.</p>
<p>The problem with the info you are using here is that it doesn't make sense. If paying the $20k per year for UM is not a problem, I don't see how you can have an EFC of $47. If you really have an EFC of $47, there is no way that "UM is not the issue." I am pointing this out because it makes a huge difference for ND. If you TRULY have an EFC of $47, you would most likely be eligible for aid at ND ... even with Profile, which can result in a higher EFC. But again, I don't understand how a family with an EFC of almost 0 can afford $20k per year without filing & getting the Pell and all that goes with it. As I said, if you are Pell eligible, the ND financial aid would most likely be quite good ... but all bets are off if your $47 EFC is just hypothetical.</p>
<p>It is possible, Kelsmom, if all assets are in qualifed retirement vehicles and dad is retired. If little money is withdrawn, which is possible with a paid house, with that many dependents, the allowance can be enough. Also money can be withdrawn without penalty to pay for college from pension plans if the owner is over 59 1/2, I believe. Still, that is a low number, and the OP should look over the form carefully. Any withdrawals from pension plans are considered income--have they been reported?</p>
<p>PROFile may not be so generous if there is home equity involved.</p>
<p>TO the OP: the $49 does not mean that is all you have to pay. That means that you can get financial aid up to COA less the $49. All FAFSA does is determine eligibility for government monies. Only the Pell grant is guaranteed and the Stafford loans. The rest is determined by the college. If they participate, HEOGH and other federal grants may be available. You state may also sponsor some scholarships based on PELL or FAFSA eligibility. Then a gain, it may not.</p>
<p>Your college determines what else it want to kick in after the guarnanteed federal money is assigned. Most FAFSA only schools are not very generous and very few kids get full COA less EFC covered.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, my confusion stems from the fact that this student is currently attending a university that is almost as expensive as UM. If the EFC is that low, I assume the student is already getting full aid at the current school (I know the policies at this school well, as a matter of fact). In that case, there wouldn't be any confusion about whether or not a $47 EFC means that's all the family will pay - because at the current school they would be paying more than $47. If the student is not getting full aid currently, I am wondering why not. I can only surmise that it's because the student did not file the FAFSA for the current school & is not receiving aid. Why not? I don't get it. What family who could get Pell, ACG, Michigan Competitive Scholarship, and SEOG wouldn't file the FAFSA? The current school is FAFSA only. It just makes me think that the EFC really isn't that low. Why do I care? Only because we can't properly advise the student if we don't know the real picture. Otherwise, it makes no difference to me. It's just that OP asked, so I don't want to mislead with my answer.</p>
<p>oh no i did get fafsa and all the aid for this uni but i wanted to know exactly what EFC was in relation to what the school does for calculation. sorry if i misled you on any of that stuff. mere curiosity.</p>
<p>snwrider...what exactly did you get for aid from WMU? You should try one of the financial aid calculators and run it for institutional methodology. But you also need to check with ND and find out IF they award institutional financial aid to transfer students who enroll in January. Maybe they do and maybe they don't. I don't know.</p>
<p>Snwrider, I was just concerned that you might believe you would be getting a better financial aid deal than what might actually come your way. I don't want you making plans based on incorrect info or assumptions. As it is, I think thumper1 raises an excellent point. Grants are often not available to mid-year transfers, because the year's allocation was awarded at the start of the year. In addition, some schools do not offer the same need based grant opportunities for transfer students at all - I don't know anything about ND's policies, so don't take that to mean that they don't - I am just raising that as something to check into. UM would also likely not have much need based grant aid available at mid-year. As I mentioned, the "pool" funds are probably gone for this year (FSEOG, FWS, and institutional need based grants). You should look into this if need based aid is important. I just want to make sure you get as much info as possible in order to make an informed decision.</p>