<p>Generally? I know schools vary greatly in aid, but, generally speaking, how accurate are they?</p>
<p>Within 5% typically?</p>
<p>The two I used were accurate to the dollar, the last few years. FinAid and College Boards (although I heard that FinAid's wasn't updated with the 09/10 formula a while back, maybe it is now).</p>
<p>Here's College Board's:</p>
<p>EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?</p>
<p>GIGO. Garbage in, Garbage out. You've gotta put the correct info in, or you won't get an accurate number.</p>
<p>And remember, the calculators aren't estimating the amount of aid you'll get, or the amount you'll have to pay. They are calculating your EFC.</p>
<p>don't use finaid.org It doesn't have the 2009-2010 data. I have sent emails to every possible POC for that website (none of the emails bounced) and I never heard back and they never updated their website. The collegeboard one does have this year's data. I completely concur with the GIGO theory. It is very accurate if you put good info in.</p>
<p>They're quite accurate if you provide them with accurate information- though it is much more accurate for families whose financial information place them on the opposite ends of the income spectrum. In other words, expect your EFC to be 0 if you can't afford to eat out more than three times a week, but don't expect your eduction to be funded by the government if your parents are rolling in Ferrari's. There will be a lot more external info that will affect the provided aid for middle income families- thus rendering the EFC calculator less precise.</p>
<p>They are accurate for the FAFSA EFC if you input accurate information. For institutional money, there can be some variance as there really isn't a uniform formula for using the information by all schools.</p>
<p>Last time I checked, I don't think college board's calculator was working if agi <$30,000 and efc should = 0.</p>