I just did the FAFSA and they said that my EFC is around 15k. However, when I turned in the same financial documents to Rice earlier this year, they determined that my EFC is around 23k and my award package was 26k for the whole year. Will Rice change my financial aid package once they receive the FAFSA? Or is the award package that they gave me when I got accepted set in stone? Thanks!
It’s difficult to say. But Rice might calculate it differently, for example also take home equity into consideration, which FAFSA (for primary home) does not.
Also the FAFSA that you just did is also not “set in stone” because you don’t have the 2015 tax returns finished yet and amounts updated. Rice might also have used your 2014 numbers to determine their aid, which might have been higher.
Rice is a CSS Profile school. Your FAFSA EFC is probably not relevant.
Guys I sent an email to Rice about this and this is what they said:
The FAFSA only determines your eligibility for federal loans and grants such as the Pell Grant. We use the CSS Profile to determine your eligibility for institutional aid. The FAFSA uses a different methodology when determining the expected family contribution than the CSS Profile and will almost always be lower, but this only opens your eligibility to add need based loans and to increase work-study. Once we receive your updated 2015 tax information we can determine if your institutional expected family contribution can be reduced.
Please keep in mind that the FAFSA cannot be completed in its entirety and submitted to us until taxes have been filed. If the information you have used is not coming directly from taxes, it may change.
Thanks to everyone who answered!