<p>Hi everyone! I have been reading through my financial aid summary, and I wanted to clarify the meaning of the Estimated Family Contribution. Does this number include my loans and work-study amounts as well as what is expected of my parents, or does it solely refer to what is expected of my parents? Thank you for your help!</p>
<p>Loans and work-study are part of the FA package that the school puts together to cover your calculated financial “need” (which might be very different from what your family can actually afford).</p>
<p>So if the expected total cost of attendance is (for example) $30k/year, and the EFC is $20k/year, then the remaining $10k/year FA package can be any combination of grants, loans, scholarships, and work-study. </p>
<p>Theoretically, the school could make the entire FA package loans, and your parents might not actually have any of the EFC available, so you’d still have to come up with the other $20k somehow after reaching your student loan limit.</p>
<p>EFC does not include loans and work study. those are part of the aid pkg.</p>
<p>EFC is misleading. You may have an EFC of $10k, but the school may expect your parents to pay $30k. schools are not required to meet need…because most schools do not have the money</p>
<p>The EFC is often the minimum amount you can expect to pay before getting federal aid including subsidized loans and work study. Most schools won’t give finanical aid over that figure either. The importance of the EFC is qualifies students for PELL and some state low income grants as well as other things that use that EFC as the guideline for low income and the limit for getting aid. That is the FAFSA EFC, by the way, which no school I know guarantees to meet need so so defined.</p>
<p>The school that guarantee to meet full need tend to have their own forumua’s and their own expected contributions from parents and students, and many require some contribution from the student regardless of the situation. Because those school formulas may include things like non custodial family finanicails, primary home equity, value of cars owned, family businesses, what they define as need can be quite different from the FAFSA EFC. </p>
<p>Thank you very much for clarifying for me! </p>