<p>So my E.F.C. is 3700 and I make $14400 per year is that correct for my income level. I am independant and expect no help from family. To me it seems too high for my income level</p>
<p>Yes I am afraid it sounds about right. Independent students don’t have nearly the income protection that parents have. The 2009-2010 income protection for an independent student without a dependent is @ $7000. Any income over that 50% goes to the EFC.</p>
<p>I would say anything 1/3 your income or lower is a reasonable EFC. i.e., the EFC doesn’t seem to often exceed 1/3 of the income, but it can vary between 0% and 33% depending on the circumstances.</p>
<p>independent student here, no dependents. income 16k, fasfa efc=0, colleges efc for me =just under 8k.</p>
<p>^^^ It is very surprising that your FAFSA EFC is 0. In the FAFSA EFC formula a single independent student has $7k income protection, a married independent student with no other dependent has $11,220 income protection, an independent student with 1 dependent other than a spouse has $17k+ or can qualify for automatic 0 EFC. It is *very *strange that an independent student with no dependent and an income of $16k would have a 0 EFC. (unless the income is something non reportable such as SS income).</p>
<p>it not surprising at all since most of that income is ssdi</p>
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<p>…</p>
<p>clearly i was well aware of that long before your post</p>
<p>It might have been helpful to have pointed that out in your first post as the OP is trying to understand if his FAFSA EFC was correct for his income.</p>