<p>I have read that Emory "meets 100% of financial need". My EFC is 6400, what does that mean for me? Will they be giving me grants for the rest (about 50k)? Or will most of it be loans? </p>
<p>I guess what I'm asking is what the typical financial aid package will look like for a student with an EFC close to mine? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, EFCs aren’t incredibly helpful when it comes to determining the amount of institutional aid you’re going to get from a top (and rich) school. Since it’s their own money, you have to submit the CSS Profile, which is a lot more in depth look into your finances. My family has an EFC of $0 and we were asked to pay 3k a semester or 6k a year–however, this is an amount we are able to pay without a significant hardship.</p>
<p>In general, expect to pay about as much as you can reasonable afford. It’s a lot better if your parents saved money (mine didn’t). The situation sucks, though, when your parents buy an expensive house/cars and top schools calculate that you could afford to pay what seems like an unrealistic amount if your family hadn’t spent its money in the way it did.</p>
<p>My EFC was 0, I had to pay $20k. </p>
<p>Don’t get your hopes up.</p>
<p>SPE was it 20k for 4 years or per year?</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter, the bottom line is that EFC isn’t a fair gauge of private financial aid. My EFC was also 0 and I don’t pay 20k. EFC has little to do with it. Doesn’t Emory or College Board provide a financial need calculator on the website? Use that.</p>
<p>^ I don’t think it’s accurate at all. On Emory’s fin aid calculator, I put in that my mom made 12k in 2011 (they only ask for hers in the calculator, not my dads which Emory will see), and they still put me at 11k a year? We have 0 EFC, no extra assets to list or anything of that sort, still owe 180k on our 200k house, she’s currently unemployed and was for basically the entire year of 2011, we have 6k in savings, I have never had a job. I was like how is that even possible to say 11k…?</p>
<p>We got ds’s FAFSA-generated student aid report today and I was very surprised that he qualifies for NO Pell Grants, just Stafford loans. On ALL the estimation calculators we used on the college’s websites he qualified for at least $900; one of the most involved calculators (at [College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.org%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.org)) estimated $2750 in Pell Grants.</p>
<p>He reeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyy wants to avoid creating debt while he is in college, so he may end up at our local CC instead of staying on-campus somewhere, although his gpa, SAT scores & ecs are quite good. He changed his mind several times about where he wanted to go to college and missed the fall deadlines for merit aid at his (current) top choices.</p>
<p>He did apply to Vanderbilt, which, like Emory, meets full financial need. With the SAR coming back with no Pell money, I’m kind of afraid that the CSS Profile will calculate our EFC to be very high. Before today, I had hoped for a manageable EFC for Vanderbilt (if he is accepted there). We’ll see how it works out.</p>
<p>So the CSS profile makes ur EFC higher?</p>
<p>There’s no real good way to figure it out. My EFC was near full tuition and I got around $8K a year… Not much at all, but it seems reliant on more than just your EFC (their office said they take into account high school tuition, so that could be a portion?)</p>
<p>Best bet is just to call the office if you’re confused/need to appeal…</p>
<p>EFC is a guideline of your federal aid eligibility. It is, I REPEAT, irrelevant to Emory beyond your eligibility for FEDERAL aid. Emory, like all private schools, is under no obligation to abide by federal guidelines with their private money, and doesn’t. </p>
<p>This means that you can have an EFC of 0 and receive little from the school, it also means that you can have an EFC of 7000 and get a sizable grant from the school. The EFC and Emory’s aid are not correlated in any meaningful way. Private schools simply use their own algorithms based on the CSS profile and IDOC service. </p>
<p>Your EFC only affects your Federal aid at Emory. These are: pell grants, stafford loans, and PLUS loans, and federal work-study eligibility. This is not the only (or even primary) source of financial aid for Emory students. </p>
<p>I happen to qualify for all of the above programs and they pay less than 1/7th the amount that Emory gives me in PRIVATE aid. </p>
<p>In short: stop worrying about this. Put in your application if you’re interested in the school and the school will send you a financial aid package in short order. There is no way, aside from having access to the specific financial aid algorithm that Emory uses, to completely calculate your potential aid. Obviously, the school does not share that information.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!</p>