<p>Ok. I feel like I might just have been f'ed out of $3k by the federal goverment.</p>
<p>I was admitted ED and received my financial aid package. My family contribution was managable so I didn't pull out my admission based on financial aid.</p>
<p>Now, I just filled out my fafsa and my EFC is significantly (about 3k) higher than my Dartmouth contribution. Dartmouth's website said that if the FM turns out higher than the IM, they use the FM to determine your financial aid package. Does this policy still apply to ED applicants (who agreed to enroll based on the financial aid estimate)? Has anyone else been in a similar situation before? Paying another 3k will be managable, but would a higher contribution also require more of my aid to come as work-study?</p>
<p>thats kind of strange. My fafsa (40 dollars a year, yes forty) estimate was a LOT lower than the efc u chicago (7000), where i got in early, came up with. i'm a bit worried about the differencce to be honest</p>
<p>I thought the FM was more student-friendly and usually provides lesser EFC . Maybe some of your families financial conditions have changed since November. I filed my FAFSA a couple of days ago and the estimated EFC came out to be lesser than the one Dartmouth gave me earlier.
Also since this is only the estimated EFC so you don't know what the real one will be .</p>
<p>Your actual FinAid is based on final 2006 income and assets. </p>
<p>When you completed the Profile back in November, it was based on an estimate of your year-end financial situation. Now that the fafsa is done with 2006 actuals, you'll need to go back an update the info on your Profile, and mail it in with final numbers. Its likely that your Profile efc will change as well.</p>
<p>Well, both my parents incomes went up by a bit from the CSS estimates, but only by around 2k (total, not each). However, FAFSA doesn't count home equity, so one would think that a 2k change in income wouldn't make it so much higher than CSS.</p>
<p>Thing is, my parents haven't filed yet and only used estimated values for income and taxes (for the FAFSA). Since Dartmouth gets the actual tax return (with slightly different numbers) anyway, would they use the FAFSA EFC if it's bigger than their calculation, even when the FAFSA was done with possibly wrong numbers while their calculation will be done with the correct numbers?</p>
<p>yes, they will continue to update your Finaid situation as long as it changes. If you will have exact numbers for the 1040 shortly, I'd suggest you wait on filing the fafsa. You can file the preliminary estimate, but you'll have to amend it later. More importantly, your actual finaid will be based on the FINAL fafsa and tax returns, not the preliminary estimates.</p>
<p>btw: as a general rule, efc increases about $0.50 for every additional dollar earned. But, income taxes paid also impacts the efc.</p>
<p>Thanks. That cleared things up a bit. One last thing. If my father electronically signs, will I be able to update the numbers later?</p>
<p>I am still confused as to how a 2k increase in AGI could lead to a 3k difference between my FM EFC and my IM EFC (done with the lesser values), especially considering that my parents had a significant home equity.</p>