<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/Funding_Education_Beyond_HS_2010-11.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/Funding_Education_Beyond_HS_2010-11.pdf</a></p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>There’s no problem with saying that an EFC measures financial strength, but to say that it’s the Expected Family Contribution strongly suggests that is what the parents will be expected to pay (and no more). </p>
<p>It wrongly suggests that the federal gov’t can dictate to America’s college how much they can charge people.</p>
<p>We need another term.</p>
<p>What would you suggest changing it to, if you were Secretary of Education for about 23 minutes? What about Eligibility For Financial Aid (EFFA) for short? It’s close to EFC, but not so close that the government’s find-and-replace technology won’t accidentally leave one instance of EFC behind when they update their websites.</p>
<p>Depends on the school; schools use the FAFSA (and some the PROFILE) then apply their own methodologies to determine how much need-based aid someone gets </p>
<p>hence the relatively few schools that “meet 100% of demonstrated need” have diffetring monetary definitions of need</p>
<p>in addition, richer elite schools are able to provide more need-based aid to the same family situation that other schools, especially those that do NOT meet 100% of demonstrated need</p>
<p>for an example of the elite/richer see these Brown FA examples; includes a family earning 160k and receiving some need-based aid:
<a href=“https://financialaid.brown.edu/Cmx_Content.aspx?cpId=333[/url]”>https://financialaid.brown.edu/Cmx_Content.aspx?cpId=333</a></p>
<p>The Solution: financial safety schools, those that either by list price (e.g., McGill) by extensive merit aid (e.g., Franklin and Marshall) or through large endowments (Grinnell, Harvard) can lower the actual cost</p>
<p>*What would you suggest changing it to, if you were Secretary of Education for about 23 minutes? What about Eligibility For Financial Aid (EFFA) for short? It’s close to EFC, but not so close that the government’s find-and-replace technology won’t accidentally leave one instance of EFC behind when they update their websites. *</p>
<p>I really don’t know. </p>
<p>But, whatever is used, it should be clear that the federal number is ONLY for federal aid. Colleges are under no obligation to do ANYTHING with that number EXCEPT use it to determine federal aid. </p>
<p>So…maybe something like Federal Aid Eligibility Index…or something that has a better ring to it, but is NOT misleading and clearly indicates that it only deals with federal aid.</p>
<p>That name is good, but I’m concerned that the acronym is a little bit of a mouthful. You have three vowels in a row like that, and they don’t even spell out a word. “Faei” could be an attempt at a faux Japanese neologism, but it might not catch on quickly enough to replace “EFC”.</p>