FAFSA EFC higher than expected, but wasn't sure what to expect- so, is this normal?

Paying for College
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<p>Hello!</p>

<p>Right, so I finally got my parents to fill out the FAFSA, and update the CSS Profile. Well, actually, I need my father to redo his noncustodial parent section of the CSS, as he was unemployed (back when I submitted for an EA program) and now is employed again. I already paid for/submitted the updated profile a few hours ago; in order for his updated part to be sent, should I simply have him fill it out immediately (he's temporarily living with us) and it will somehow automatically be updated (doubt it), or do I email an updated version to each college's financial aid office? (If so, is there a preferred format? PDF of the page? Just text? From his email address, or mine? Haha sorry, I always ask for the tiniest details...)</p>

<p>Right, uh, sorry for that, haha. Now to the main concern.
Well, after submitting the FAFSA, I went and checked our EFC. I was a bit, well, shocked and dismayed when I saw how high it was. It came to about $16,244.
I may be silly for expecting less, I don't know. My parents are divorced, and with my father's new job, we get a household total income, with child support, of about $54,000. We don't really have any significant savings, investments, or other such valuables, so that couldn't have really added to it. My sister is also in college for the next few years. We owe 130k out of about 170k for our house mortgage. (I don't really have any frame of reference for the financial significance of that, but I provided it in case you do.)
The main reason it startled me, I admit, is because it seems like all the time with Harvard et al and all those "100% need no loans" places, they say they eliminate tuition for incomes under 60,000. Since we're under this, seeing us being obligated to pay almost $20k a year shocked me. Especially since everyone says this is the minimum number we'll pay, and also usually say that the CSS Profile almost always makes you pay more than the FAFSA says you would. Good gracious. Is the EFC really normal for this income?
I also worry if it's something to do with my father's filling out of the FAFSA+CSS, i.e. potential typos. I was hanging over his shoulder for periods of time while he did it, and it wasn't that uncommon for me to correct him as he was tabbing down the boxes to point out that he had added an extra zero, an extra number, accidentally putting a wrong value, etc, things like that. It wasn't frequent enough that I'm convicted he filled out things wrong, but if this isn't normal for our income, then, well... We'll triple-check, I suppose. (I realize it's a good idea to do this anyway, but I haven't found the option to look over a submitted FAFSA again, yet.)</p>

<p>Gah. Sorry for the length. I really, really appreciate any input; I'm not at all educated in financial aid matters, and I had gotten an impression from those super-aid colleges that our income was enough to get (close to) a full ride. So, is it? Or am I missing some important factor? Or is FAFSA's EFC off a bit for these schools?
Thank you again.</p>

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<p>That seems high based on what you posted.</p>

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<p>If your father is your non-custodial parent, he shouldn’t include any of his income when filling out FAFSA. Only your mother’s income, which includes child support and alimony, is listed as parent income. Can you confirm this?</p>

<p>Your primary residence is not reported on FAFSA.</p>

<p>I agree that your EFC seems high.</p>

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<p>I’m confused–is the $54K the household income at your mother’s home or does it also count your father’s income. For FAFSA only schools, that sounds too high, but for CSS Profile schools that count your dad’s income and assets, we can’t comment without knowing what those are. Also, what calculator did you use?</p>

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<p>Oh, yes, I’m very sorry, I should have been more clear. My father filled it out, but was reporting my mother’s information, not his own. This is simply because he’s more knowledgeable in our finances and does both parents’ taxes and whatnot (with mother being occasionally hollered at for confirmations). Also, she’s lazy. But, yes, it was her information being reported by him. He didn’t put anything about his own income, as far as I know.</p>

<p>The 54k is my mother’s income, for myself, my sister, and her. My father is technically a separate residence, but is temporarily staying with us.</p>

<p>The calculator I used is simply what was reported on the FAFSA confirmation page, which he printed out.</p>

<p>Thanks very much for the confirmation that it’s a bit high. I guess I’ll get everyone together again once I receive my SAR to give it a very thorough lookover.</p>

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<p>I don’t know if that EFC is normal or not…</p>

<p>However, I’m concerned that you might be using “Harvard FA math” and thinking that applies to other schools. Harvard (and the few others that have those income thresholds) doesn’t really use EFC to dictate what families should pay. </p>

<p>Those schools are in a small minority. What they do doesn’t apply to the majority of other schools. It’s like comparing a rich, super generous grandmother to a modest-giving grandmother with limited resources. Just because you might expect a new car from rich granny, doesn’t mean you can expect even a tank of gas from the other.</p>

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<p>Oh, yes, I do know not every school is like Harvard. However, the majority of the schools I applied to (matches and reaches, at least) claim to meet 100% financial need without loans, are known to give generous FA because of their selectivity, and, while I know that many will have gaps between real need and their definition of need, this EFC number just initially struck me as a bit of an excessive starting point. I don’t really expect 0 EFC, but $16.5k seemed a bit much for a $54k income.
I do understand your concern, though. :slight_smile: Thank you for the words of caution.</p>

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<p>It seems very high for a $54,000 pretax income (and few parent assets or student income/assets). Especially of there is another sibling in school at the same time. I would expect it to be closer to 6-7,000 with just you in school. 1/2 that with a sibling in school.</p>

<p>You can view and print your SAR here.
[FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/studentaccess.jsp]FAFSA”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/studentaccess.jsp)
Go through it line by line to see if there are any errors.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for the link! I have to wait for them to finish processing it for the first time before I can access my SAR, but once that email comes along, I’ll be right on it.
I had actually thought it’d be around $6-7k as well, having long ago plugged numbers into Stanford’s FA calculator. I wasn’t sure if that was just by Stanford’s standards, though, so I needed more confirmation.</p>

<p>Thank you again! :slight_smile: I think I’m pretty set now on what to do about this. (And feeling a lot better about it all!)</p>

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<p>I agree with swimcatsmom’s rough estimate… just speaking of FAFSA here, not the Profile. Our first FAFSA a couple years ago was in that ballpark, and that was roughly our EFC.</p>

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<p>But if we’re talking about the highly selective, 100% need met schools, they will also be considering your father’s income and assets.</p>

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<p>Yes, I was only talking about FAFSA.</p>

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<p>Print the actual formula guide here:</p>

<p>[Federal</a> Student Aid - IFAP: iLibrary - EFC Formula Guide](<a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/ifap/byAwardYear.jsp?type=efcformulaguide]Federal”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/ifap/byAwardYear.jsp?type=efcformulaguide)</p>

<p>and you can see if it matches and why</p>

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<p>Thanks for that, somemom :slight_smile: I’ll be rechecking with that once I’m done overlooking everything.</p>

<p>IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I think I found the problem! I noticed that under my mom’s investments, my father put $410,000. I asked him what this is, and he told me that this was her retirement money in an IRA. Well, I searched around this forum, and it seems to me that this is not money you are supposed to report under investments (which makes sense, as it’s protected and not liquid; it’s not like they can take from it to pay for bills.)
I’m still looking over the rest, but I speculate that this is where the main problem was. After all, that would be a huge sum of money to have freely floating in investments, and I would imagine it would impact the EFC quite a bit. Such a relief to have an idea of the issue’s source.
Still gotta check everything, though!</p>

<p>I gotta say, though, thank you everyone so much for your contributions. I (and all members of CC) am really lucky to have access to a forum of such helpful and concerned individuals. Thank you so much for taking time to give me advice and support :)</p>

<p>Edit: That fixed it! EFC is now about $5000!! :smiley: Everything is fully checked, as well. Thank you everyone!</p>

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<p>You are right, IRAs are not supposed to be reported on FAFSA.</p>

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<p>Great!
Ahh, I just noticed my dad put the same thing under my mom’s investments in the CSS Profile. Does anyone know the process for sending corrections on this?
I’ve heard that you must print and hand-correct CSS Profiles, physically mailing each school’s fin aid office the corrected copy. Is this true? I imagine I should do this immediately, as it projects a significantly different number (and EFC) from just plain old tax return fine-tuning.</p>

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<p>You could do it now, and tell them it’s because mistakes were made in filling it out the first-time with reference to the retirement account, but then alert them to the fact that yet another revision will be coming when your taxes are completed. They can decide what they want to do with it then – either do another pass at it, or wait until the final revision comes in.</p>

<p>My guess is that they may well not have even done a preliminary work-up of your aid yet, so it might be useful to get those changes (although not the final numbers) to them earlier rather than later so you at least have a more accurate preliminary award.</p>

<p>And, yeah, if you’ve already sent them the Profile online, you’ll have to do hand-corrections and send them the hard-copy.</p>

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<p>That’s how I figured it would work. Thank you. Yes, I agree, I want to send out these corrections as soon as possible. I doubt any have worked out preliminary aid packages yet, and I want this updated before they do.
It is fairly simple to print and mail, so I could likely have it done and sent within a few days.</p>

<p>Again, thank you everyone for the help. I think all my questions are cleared at this point, so the thread is ready to close.
You guys are great! Peace out!</p>