<p>Hey everyone. I'm not exaggerating. My family has just completed FAFSA and we were shocked to find the EFC they predicted for us. We are a family of 3 people with a gross income of around $70,000. We own no private business, farms, or significant investment. The tuition FAFSA is asking us to pay is more than $36,000. How is this possible? We used another EFC calculator on collegeboard and it reported our EFC to be around $10,000. Logically, it does not make sense either because after tax, mortgage, and bills, we do not have $36,000 left for tuition. I have called FAFSA and tried to find where on the form I might have make a mistake. Their response has been "contact the school", which needless to say is unhelpful. I am worried that I might have reported some numbers wrong on FAFSA (such as by repeating or not subtracting some numbers). Is there any advice anyone can offer? Help please??</p>
<p>It certainly does not sound right Sakura girl. I ran numbers through finaid (which I find better than CC - sorry CC) and based on $70,000 income & household of 3 with 1 in college and it came up with an EFC of around $15,000. Here is a link to a web site with helpful info about filling in FAFSA</p>
<p>It will take you through question by question. Pull up your FAFSA and go through it to check you have not answered wrong. Good luck and let us know if you figure it out. If you filled it out wrong you can go back and correct it.</p>
<p>Is this your first time filing? Do you have assets in savings, etc.? Without knowing more, I would recommend log back in, pull up your saved FAFSA, and carefully, calmly go over it line by line, to make sure you didn't accidently populate any of the fields incorrectly. Perhaps there is something out of place, or something that you overlooked. </p>
<p>Sophomore year, I accidently entered a figure - just one figure - on the wrong line of my tax return. I entered it one line below. My FAFSA was pulled for verification, and, even though the school could clearly see the error was very obvious and what was intended, and even though they had all corresponding documentation, I actually had to file an amended tax return with < 24 hours notice. If I didn't, the school wasn't going to release the scholarship money or something (even though it had nothing to do with income). Since I was traveling on business at the time, I had to send a good friend to my house to pull my tax file, fax my original tax return to my hotel, and I had to cancel a meeting in order to take time to complete the amended tax form and send it everywhere it needed to go. </p>
<p>My point is it's very, very easy to make silly errors, especially with a form you have no experience with, so, unless there is something else or other information you didn't post, very possibly you simply entered something incorrectly in one of the fields.</p>
<p>If you have applied to a LAC you may find it helpful to speak with the financial aid officer or their senior staff. Yes, they will often help you find out if there is a mistake on your FAFSA. Given your situation, it cannot hurt to ask.</p>
<p>I agree with the others. Go back over your form very carefully. </p>
<p>If there are no mistakes, could you have assets that are giving you a high number?</p>
<p>Also, EFCs are frequently a lot higher than what anyone can pay for out of their income. Usually they expect you will tap into savings or home equity or whatever, or take out parent loans.</p>
<p>Yes, this is my first time filling. I can definitely see how one small mistake can mess the whole calculation up. My family does not have any significant asset. We just moved from apartment to house a couple years ago. Since all of my relatives reside in another country, we don't have any inheritanceXD</p>
<p>I read over the student aid questions (thank you swimcatsmom for the link!!) and I think I found a potential place for mistake. Where it says "Adjusted Gross Income, right under it is "Spouse's income earned from working". The explanation for "Spouse's income earned from working" is "Your (and your spouse's) 2006 income earned from work (wages, salaries, tips, combat pay) will be used in the EFC calculation as an income factor when no tax form is filed." Does that mean I should not fill out this part if I WILL fill a tax form? Should only the "Adjusted Gross Income" be filled instead of both? My family reported approx $70,000 for AGI and around $50,000 for income earned from working. Did I repeat myself by filling both? Evidently, I'm very confused here.</p>
<p>Another place where our high EFC could have resulted is from my parents' retirement saving. Does the amount we report as retirement affect EFC? I think my parents reported quite a bit this year for that.</p>
<p>Thank for all the replies so far! I definitely appreciate future help!!</p>
<p>Are your parents retirement savings in IRAs or 401ks? If so they are 'protected' and do not have to be reported on FAFSA.</p>
<p>I come from a single family home that makes about 50,000 gross a yr. and according to the EFC on Collegeboard, I'm supposed to pay like 15000 dollars..after taxes, expenses, and ****, we don't have 15000. The University gave me about 20000 and it costs 46000..i dont think these EFC things are correct</p>
<p>bsb - Do they have assets other than primary residence and retirement plans? That could put the EFC up. Try the finaid calculator - I have heard it is pretty accurate.</p>
<p>"Are your parents retirement savings in IRAs or 401ks? If so they are 'protected' and do not have to be reported on FAFSA."</p>
<p>Do 403bs have to be reported as well? I did not know 401ks did not have to be reported and how come they ask the question if it is protected anyway?</p>
<p>If your EFC from the FAFSA seems unreasonably high (they'll all too high, I guess, but you know what I mean), punch the numbers into the FinAid calculator. It will give you an EFC, but also it breaks down the EFC and shows where it came from (student assets, student income, parental assets, parental income). It also shows you your asset and income protection allowances. VERY handy when preparing to complete the FAFSA, and when trying to track down possible errors.</p>
<p>No sense fretting over 20 or 30K in parental savings/assets, for example, when you find out your parental asset protection allowance is 45K (if no other reportable assets). On the other hand, 10K in student assets will bump the EFC by 2K.</p>
<p>With income 50K, you must be showing high assets in order to wind up with a 15K EFC. Ditto income of 70K getting a $36K EFC. Perhaps in both cases, you showed significant assets in the student's name.</p>
<p>OK this is getting a bit deeper than my knowledge. But the instructions for asset declaration state:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do not include the value of life insurance and retirement plans (pension funds, annuities, non-Education IRAs, Keogh plans, etc.).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Which question are you referring to janesmom?</p>
<p>Question 85.</p>
<p>ok - question 85 is an income question - not an asset question. Payments you make in the year of filling out FAFSA have to be declared (ie cannot reduce your income like they do for tax purposes). But the total balance you have in retirement accounts does not have to be reported as an asset.</p>
<p>Gosh, thanks. I am really having panic attacks over this whole financial aid process. I think my head is ready to explode.</p>
<p>Did you see the link I posted above in post 2 for the OP? It is very helpful with detailed explanations for each question on FAFSA.</p>
<p>I filed already and got my EFC. Mine was pretty much where I thought it would be. It really wasn't too bad; I just thought I may have misinterpreted something. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>correct me if I'm wrong:</p>
<p>AGI is Earned income from work PLUS interest & dividends
Earned income from work is ONLY the wages (your W-2 line 1 )</p>
<p>worksheet B - If you have money withheld (BEFORE taxes are paid) that go to a retirement account. Ie you make 50K at year and put 10% in retirement. You have 5K of tax deferred savings.</p>
<p>It's more complicated than that. OK to estimate for now, though, and it will be clearer once your taxes are done.</p>
<p>From "Paying for College..." (you should also see this on the 1040):</p>
<p>EARNED income includes wages, tips, salary, business self-income, and untaxed income (including pre-tax contributions to deferred comp 401(k) and 403(b) plans, but not IRA's or Keogh's). For the student, earned income excludes work-study income or taxable grants in excess of tuition, fees, books.</p>
<p>GROSS income is wages, tips, salary, business self income/loss, earned income plus taxable interest & dvidends, plus state/local income tax refunds, alimony, capital gains/loss, taxable IRA distributions, taxable pensions and annuties, rents, royalties, unemployment compensation, taxable SS benefits, and other taxable income.</p>
<p>ADJUSTED GROSS income (AGI) is GROSS income (above) minus:
Health Savings account deduction
Moving expenses
1/2 self-employment tax
Self-employed SEP/Simple plans
Self-Employed health insurance premiums (this is a biggie for us)
Penalty on early withdrawl of savings
Alimony paid
IRA contributions
Student Loan interest
(and a few other oddball deductions in the Adjustments to Income section)</p>
<p>It's complicated. The taxes are complicated, and the financial aid formula is complicated. BUT, the complexity allows room to manage your financial situation in the months leading up to FAFSA/Profile in order to legally maximize your potential aid.</p>
<p>sakuragirl, be careful with FAFSA and make sure you know exactly who the form is talking about. For example, the line you mentioned asks for "your spouse's" income. Is that the parent's spouse or the student's spouse? You may have accidentally put one of your parents' income in the form twice. That would seriously increase your EFC!</p>