<p>I think he/she may be looking at it as an index figure, which is somewhat valid for the sole purpose of determining Pell eligibility. In all of the other applications of EFC, it’s clearly a dollar amount!</p>
<p>“For the 2011-2012 school year, an EFC above 4617 means you won’t qualify for the Pell grant and will get federal loans only.”</p>
<p>Fail. The current Pell cutoff is 5273.</p>
<p>^Good catch, 2011, and welcome to CC!</p>
<p>Well crap… my mistake! Wrong darn chart! Sorry… thanks guys for catching that one.</p>
<p>This “dollar” tiff reminds me of the perennial debate over the difference between “financial aid” and “scholarship”! :D</p>
<p>After you do the FAFSA it says on the bottom, underneath your EFC number, that the number isn’t a dollar amount</p>
<p>Weird EFCs–I did FAFSAs for 2 sisters last year, everything done correctly–the first one got a EFCof $9, and the second one got an EFC of $11.</p>
<p>Go figure!</p>
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<p>Finally! Now… will someone here actually believe me? Just 'cause i don’t have 20,000 posts (not a dollar amount) and can’t talk like I swallowed a tax code manual…
no respect, no respect at all.</p>
<p>Wow.
Just wow.</p>
<p>The first Pell schedule published for the 10-11 year had the lower EFC cut-off. When the EFC cut-off was raised … after schools had begun awarding aid, by the way … the new schedule was published. Doing a search can lead to the wrong schedule, unfortunately.</p>
<p>The $9/$11 EFC thing has to do with the student contribution. The kids must have different income and/or asset info. You would see the Student Contribution & the Parent Contribution listed separately on each SAR. You probably have 0 PC.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, Where on the SAR would I find the EFC broken down into parent contribution/ student contribution? I only see one number. I filled out FAFSA and received SARs for 2 kids this year. Our incoming freshman’s EFC is 482. Older sibling who has higher income and assets has an EFC of 8447. As a family we qualify for Simplified Needs Test but I assume they expect at least some of the money to come from us parents since we make too much for auto 0 EFC. Ideas?</p>
<p>Since I just filed a FAFSA, here’s exactly what it says about the EFC:</p>
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<p>It does not say that it is “not a dollar amount”. They don’t print it to look like a dollar amount because it doesn’t represent a real amount of money students will be expected to pay anyone. Even at a school that meets full need, since the COA includes estimates of costs that students may or may not actually incur (such as books, travel, etc.) But it IS as kelsmom says a dollar amount UP TO WHICH aid may be offered by a school that meets full aid. If you attended a FAFSA-only school which met full need, it would be an <em>estimate</em> of the <em>dollar amount</em> your family would be expected to spend toward the student’s education.</p>
<p>memama, there is no breakdown given for EFC figures. But, since you qualified for the simplified formula, neither your assets nor your children’s were considered. So, assuming your HS senior’s income did not exceed the $5,250 student income protection allowance that is built into the formula, it’s likely that the entire $482 EFC was the parent contribution. A like amount would have been used for your older child, so his/her contribution to that EFC was around $7965. Did that child earn above $20K last year?</p>
<p>Sorry - I thought the student & parent contributions were broken down on the SAR … they are broken down on the ISIR, which is the document the schools receive.</p>
<p>If you go to the 11-12 EFC formula, you can do the student formula for each child to see if that is where the difference comes in. It most likely is where the difference is coming into play.</p>
<p>Thanks sk8rmom and kelsmom. I kinda thought that’s how it might work. I have tried using the online calculator and the 11-12 formula and been unable to come up with the exact same EFC number. I think until we actually do our taxes I’m confused about just how our retirement contribution affects AGI. I know the numbers I used were close enough to not throw the EFC off too much. And yes, older sibling took time off from school to work and earned more than 20K. </p>
<p>A related question: Older sibling “promises to return to school” but until that actually happens I want to be prepared. If we end up with only the younger child attending I will of course notify the financial aid offices right away. (I was advised it was better to assume 2 in college and adjust later if necessary because it is easier for them to take away aid than to come up with additional aid for our package.) Is there a simple way to calculate how our EFC will change? We would then count 1 fewer family member for FAFSA and 1 less student in school. I assume that will make the new EFC more than double for our incoming freshman.</p>
<p>Yes, it is best to begin with the higher number. It’s easy to take aid away … harder to get more (limited supply of funding).</p>
<p>Normally, the EFC would double. I am curious. Why would you take the older child out of your HH size? If you are providing 50% of the support, you can leave the kid in the household. As long as he/she is under the age of 24, it’s common to see siblings in the HH size even if they aren’t in college.</p>
<p>We don’t financially support this older child at all except for being on our insurance. Lives independently and files own taxes so I understood only counts for FAFSA if attending school. I think the assumption is that parents our age make lots of money compared to our kids who are just starting out. Due to career loss my husband is “starting over” income wise. He makes less than 40K and we have 3 other kids at home. I’m a fulltime homemaker (and like to think I’m pretty good at pinching pennies!) This older child made about 25K in 2010 so I don’t see how we could be providing anywhere near 50%.</p>
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<p>I believe your pretax retirement contributions for 2010 are added back in as income.</p>