<p>I hope this is not a stupid question, but is there a way to get a good idea of your family's expected contribution to the cost of college before your child is a senior? The woman at my son's high school who handles financial aid counseling says you can't determine this until your child is a senior and submits the FASFA. But our son, a junior, is getting interested in some extremely expensive schools that give little or no merit aid, and I suspect we are likely to fall in that no man's land being able to demonstrate need and being able to afford to send him ourselves. I don't want to spend a lot of time visiting schools -- or have him fall deeply in love with schools -- that there's no way he can afford to go to. I don't need a precise amount but just a ballpark estimation of what people at our income and asset level will be expected to contribute.</p>
<p>Your EFC is based on your income from the previous year...so for students enrolling in college in Sept 2008, financial aid is based on the 2007 tax year. SO...the best you could do is estimate because you won't have the 2008 information until the end of that tax year.</p>
<p>If you think your income and assets will remain stable you can use the EFC estimator.</p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid</p>
<p>But remember, in addition to the FASFA some schools use the CSS profile and some use their own financial aid forms. </p>
<p>Even though the estimator allows you to calculate based on federal and institutional methodology, no one really knows what each individual school's formula is for determining need. Some cap the value of your home, some don't. Questions on the CSS profile also change depending on your particular school. For example, some people have had to put the value of their cars. </p>
<p>So basically, even though my son is already a senior, already accepted to several schools with the FASFA filled out I still have no idea what this is going to cost me, and I wont until April.</p>
<p>I used the above link to estimate mine several years ago! Most parents are pretty shocked that they can afford to spend most of their take-home salary on college, so be prepared. It was good to tell my kid before we met with GC to make a preliminary list that it was very important to fall in love with our in-state public universities. She's in love with one private that she probably won't be accepted to anyway, but we are visiting it and maybe trying to find a state college that best duplicates its qualities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I used the calculator and, as I feared, discovered that we could swing our EFC only if we stopped eating, gave up using electricity, and saved our car for special occasions. Fortunately, our son will likely qualify to attend one of our state universities for free. Now all we have to do is convince him that's where he wants to go!</p>