<p>When i filled out the EFC calculators on CollegeConfidential and CollegeBoard, they were both relatively around 5000. Using the same data, my dad just filled out the Fafsa4caster today and had an EFC estimated of 32000. This number seemed way too high for me. My parents combined make around 70k and have roughly 90k savings. We have no property, business, or home. I don't work or have any savings. </p>
<p>Is the EFC of 32000 high for our stats? Has anyone else had similar experience? I was sure it'd come out to be around 5k, but 32k seems impossible.</p>
<p>5000 seems low. I would have expected more around 13,000 ish (unless there will be more than 1 student in school or your parent is older and has more asset protection, or the savings are in a retirement account in which case they are not reported on FAFSA). 32,000 seems much to high. Double check that figures or information were not entered wrongly.</p>
<p>I concur with swimcatsmom assessment, 5000 seems low and 32000 seems high.</p>
<p>Make sure they are putting Adjusted gross income into the formula, not gross pay, not net pay. And pre-tax 401K contributions are added back in.</p>
<p>Collegeboard and fafsa4caster both had current tables for 2009-2010 I think, I have no idea about the calculator on CC. Never used that.</p>
<p>I second what swimcatsmom said, $5,000 seems low (maybe), but $32,000 sounds high but I can’t really say what you should be looking at. What I can offer is that during our financial aid application season we had more than one instance of EFC estimates not being consistent. What I did was go back to determine why there was an inconsistency. The reason was ALWAYS a mistake I had made, in ALL cases I had not entered my data consistently.</p>
<p>These are not easy forms to fill out unless you are an accountant which I am not. Go back and see if you can figure out why there is a discrepancy. In my case I was entering our retirement twice, which made a big difference.</p>