@joecoletta could you please send me the most recent FAFSA (EFC estimate) spreadsheet. The 2018 discussion on this topic was closed so I was unable to request the spreadsheet in that discussion thread.
We immigrated to the US 4.5years ago so neither my wife or I have any experience with the US college process (admissions or funding) but having been working to address that shortfall.
I’m hoping to use the spreadsheet to get a better appreciation of what to expect when our 11th grade daughter is ready to apply to colleges next year. Our son will follow suit soon afterwards (10th grade currently).
I own a small business so I understand financial decisions we make over the next 2 years are critical to us as parents (what can we afford) as well as to our daughter (managing college choices - financial implications for college list). I want to be able to understand what the impact will be based on different potential scenarios (eg buy a house vs keep renting, payback personal loans made to start the business vs extend the terms, etc)
Thank you
@joecoletta has not been active on this site since February. Maybe someone else who received the spreadsheet can somehow get it to you.
@piresn please keep on mind…any numbers you get now would need to be considered rough estimates for two years from now. Financial aid policies do change as do the formulas the schools use to award institutional need based aid. In addition, if your student isn’t starting college until 2021, you will need your income tax information for this full year…2019. And assets as of the day you file the financial aid forms a year from October.
You could run net price calculators for a very rough estimate of your net costs…but having a business can really impact how need based aid is awarded. There are a number of deductions allowed by the IRS for tax purposes that are added back in as income for financial aid calculation purposes.
FAFSA EFC only really matters for federal or state aid. Once the EFC is around $6,000 there is no Pell Grant, and depending on school/state there might or might not be federal work study or state grant.
Very few schools meet need based on FAFSA EFC alone.
2019 is almost 3/4 over.
FAFSA doesn’t look at primary home equity.
You can try to update the old spreadsheet with the new EFC formula values, or work through the 20/21 FAFSA EFC formula by hand.
https://regulations.justia.com/regulations/fedreg/2019/05/31/2019-11354.html