How accurate is the institutional methodology calculator of collegeboard?

Paying for College
1

<p>EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?</p>

<p>How accurate is that for IM? It was RIGHT ON THE MONEY for the FAFSA EFC... so just wondering :)</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I have always found it does not calculate state and local taxes paid, but it won’t do that for us, anyway-our state has high property taxes & my H works in another state. </p>

<p>It always seems to calculate the medical expense allowance correctly.</p>

3

<p>It’s only a general ballpark. Unlike FAFSA which comes up with one calculation for Federal FA for all schools, colleges give institutional funds according to their own formula. They mostly collect the same financial information, but some will include home equity in assets, some will cap assets, etc. Often colleges have their own calculators on their websites and those will give more accurate estimates than the one on the CB which is general.</p>

4

<p>Ah, thank you :)</p>

<p>The CB one is giving me a wonderful IM EFC so I’m hoping it’ll be close to that…!!</p>

5

<p>It was spot on for the federal – within a few hundred dollars, but the institutional number varied almost $8k between the different schools to which D was admitted. I don’t think that there is an “accurate” number possible from a general institutional methodology given that the Profile schools use home equity in ways that vary tremendously from school to school.</p>

6

<p>I see… sigh. My home equity is very high, so I’m nervous about that :frowning: But we’ve already “tapped into it” for other purposes.</p>

7

<p>Colleges are all over the map. In general the better the college, the more generous they are. Many cap home equity at a multiple of income. Some don’t count home equity (Harvard) in their generous new calculation. It just depends on the school.</p>

8

<p>Yeah - thanks all. I got my fin aid today… and need to appeal.</p>

<p>:(</p>

9

<p>What’s the gap between your expectations and what you got?</p>

10

<p>Not an INCREDIBLE amount, but still worried.</p>

<p>Why?</p>

11

<p>My IM calculation and actual EFC was about a 10k difference (negatively).</p>