<p>OK I thought I posted this a few minutes ago but it didn't show up yet so here goes again!
When we filled out the FAFSA our total savings were 18,381. We have no assets other than our home and the money in my husband's 401k. When I add the amount in my daughter's assets (17,763) and savings account (2,127) it does indeed come very close to the entire EFC.
I thought I remembered having to enter the value of our home minus the amount of our mortgage somewhere, am I mistaken? It's not anywhere on the SAR or the copy of the FAFSA information I printed out when filling.</p>
<p>Value of your home is on the PROFILE, not the FAFSA -- so if you filled out a CSS/PROFILE, that's where you remember entering your home equity.</p>
<p>OK, you definately made a mistake somewhere. Your numbers are very similar to mine and our EFC came in between 7-8 not 18. I would go online right now and double check al of your numbers. It may be too late for this year, but it may make a difference for next year. Then I would call the FA office and let them give you info on how this may affect next years aid. They certainly did a great job with an EFC of 18, but would that hold true if it was lower??? </p>
<p>THe profile looks at the home equity, but it doesn't give you an EFC which is why I assumed it was a FASFA only school. If the school requires the profile, your house will be considered and you'll be in the same boat as the rest of us. My institutional EFC is about 22,000.</p>
<p>so you have a HUGE HE. Looks like they want you to use that.</p>
<p>EFC Seems high. Running the 60k income with 18K parent assets (which would be protected) and 20k student assets through the finaid EFC calculator i would expect @14,000 - 4000 of which is from student assets. Did the student have income?</p>
<p>No the home should not have been entered anywhere on FAFSA. Nor should retirement assets.</p>
<p>If you use all the student assets year 1 and reduce the EFC by @ 4000 (I say @4000 because selling the assets creates income to the student which also affects the EFC) - do you know if the school will meet the difference with something other than loans?</p>
<p>I am assuming this is all FAFSA? CSS looks at home etc differently.</p>
<p>What's a HE?</p>
<p>I'm assuming by HE you mean home equity? If so, houses in our area similar to ours list in the 250,000 to 300,000 range and we owe 100,000.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom- I think he came up with his own acronym for home equity</p>
<p>jjcddg, checked my numbers and all looks correct!</p>
<p>Oh - duh. I was assuming from the OPs posts that this is a FAFSA school so HE would not come into play. (I feel like I'm talking about God or something with the he in Caps).</p>
<p>jess - does your daughter have income? That can have a big impact if it is over the protected amount ($3080 plus a little for taxes).</p>
<p>yes, I meant home equity. As all suspected, your EFC is on the high side from what you have reported here. I don't think any one will be so nosy as to ask to see your balance sheet and income statement. However, you may want to find someone you trust and let them review your profile filing.</p>
<p>Did you mean Eastern University?? I can't find Easter?? They are a FASFA only school. You looked at the numbers, and they are right? It does not make sense. Are you sure that under contributions to 401K or retirement you ONLY put last years contribution and not the full amount you have. I have to go to work- but this is one thread that I'm definately going to watch. I'd like to see a happy ending. Is that possible within the next two hours?</p>
<p>swimcatsmom: maybe the "HE" you mention is who I should spend more time talking to!!! :)
.....not that you all are not helping me out or at least letting me know I'm not alone.</p>
<p>I did mean "Eastern" University, sorry for the typo! My daughter had 5,540 in income. I also checked the 401k amount we reported and it was a little under 5,000.</p>
<p>lol jessc .</p>
<p>Have you tried running your numbers through a calculator like the one at finaid? It is quite accurate I have found. And your EFC does seem very high for a 60k income.</p>
<p>Or if you are really anal about how FAFSA and the EFC works (like me - I can't stand putting numbers in and not understanding the numbers that come out) the formula is here</p>
<p>Your daughter's income would have added to the EFC also - student income over 3080 (plus the little allowance for taxes - maybe another $200) is hit at 50% for the EFC. So that accounts for another 11-1200 of the EFC.</p>
<p>Assuming the 5000 is your 401k contributions for the year it would be added back to your AGI by the FAFSA formula (assuming non-roth which would not have reduced the AGI in the 1st place).</p>
<p>I don't know what to say JCM. Because I have no idea what the earning power of an Eastern U graduate will be.</p>
<p>I just went to the EFC calculator at collegeboard.com and ran our numbers and came up with a much smaller EFC number for the "Federal Methodology" and a higher EFC for the "Institutional Methodology" . Now I'm really wondering what's up!</p>
<p>OK, so now I've gone to <a href="http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/at...rmulaGuide.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/at...rmulaGuide.pdf</a>, printed out the forms and ran the numbers which came up with a EFC of around 13k. Which seems more reasonable. Guess I'll be making some calls.</p>