<p>Annual Income: 130,000
Income Tax Paid: 20,000
Student's Checking Account: 250
Student's Savings (Put on FAFSA as Current Investments): 24,000 - This is my college savings account
Parent's Checking Account: 5,000
Parent's Current Investments: 10,000</p>
<p>EFC: 30,083 </p>
<p>I'm sorry but as a senior in high school I cannot grasp this. If I attend a school that is over 24,000 a year they expect me to use every cent of my savings and beyond that!?!? I live in New York and the cheapest option is a SUNY school. A SUNY school costs about 17,00 a year. Again, I am so confused as to why they expect me to use all of my savings within the first year.</p>
<p>They expect your parents to contribute a substantial part of their income. Your parents make a lot of money especially if you are an only child.</p>
<p>I am not an only child I have a sister. Every other part of the FAFSA is $0. I only gave the parts we filled in as the rest of the categories are nothing.</p>
<p>The biggest component of the EFC calculation is your parents’ income. A $30,000 EFC sounds like the right ballpark to me based on $130,000 in income - which is fairly high. The expectation is that you contribute some from your savings, your parents contribute some from their savings and some comes from your parents’ current income.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that you have so much money in your own name. it would have been better to save for college in your parents’ names from a financial aid perspective.</p>
<p>There are other posters on here who are more knowledgeable than I am - but I believe that even with that EFC you would get a Stafford loan - which is a student loan at a good rate. But if you are expecting more than that - I think you will be disappointed.</p>
<p>My parent’s income is only 110,000 after taxes. That is relatively low for where we live. Long Island is one of the most expensive places to live. All the savings we have for my college are what’s in my account. The rest of the savings are for their retirement. My mom doesn’t even work.</p>
<p>The $24k in student savings will impact the EFC by 20% of their value - so $4800. Are they in a 529 account? If so they should be reported as a parent asset where they would have less of an impact.</p>
<p>Other than that, it is your parent’s high income that is the main reason for the high EFC.</p>
<p>Your savings account adds $4800 to your EFC because the formula assumes that 20% of it will be available for college. If this is money that is intended to pay for college, specifically qualified higher education expenses, then you would be better off moving it to a college account (called a 529 account). That would lower your EFC by around $3400.</p>
<p>I live on Long Island, and even here the median income is quite a bit lower than the amount your parents make.</p>
<p>Just about everything that <em>I</em> earn pays for my children’s college education. Your mother might have to do the same. I have four children, and my husband has 3 children of his own.</p>
<p>The cost of living is high here, that is for sure. But we also can write off a lot of those expenses, such as property taxes. That brings the taxable income down and sort of evens the playing field.</p>
<p>The 529 account adjustment would still leave you with a $26,000 or so EFC. Is your mother able to work - even part-time? It sounds like you need to sit down with your parents and have a conversation - discuss options.</p>
<p>I in no way expected to receive any grants but I would have never guessed my EFC would be so high. I would have guessed it to be at the maximum around 20,000. I guess that’s just my ignorance of the system.</p>
<p>EFC shock is a very common event - you are in good company. Now you and your parents just need to figure out what to do with this info. Have you rcvd any college acceptances yet? Any merit aid awards? Any FA awards yet? Many families have to discard an acceptance or two because the money just doesn’t work. If a SUNY is your best option - so be it - not the end of the world.</p>
<p>You have to wait for the FAFSA to process - then just sign in again and follow the link to make corrections. Move that asset out of your asset category and into your parents asset category and resubmit the FAFSA. But - if your EFC becomes $26,000 rather than $30,000 - it helps some - but does it make that big of a difference?</p>
<p>I have been accepted to everywhere I applied and only waiting on one more place. I received one financial aid package. Right now I’m trying to fix my FAFSA so I can count my 529 as parent assets.</p>
<p>Once you correct the FAFSA and have the new EFC - I would also suggest contacting the school you already have the FA award from and let them know about the changes so they can hopefully send you a new and improved award.</p>
<p>There certainly is no harm in contacting all the schools. I prefer to do this by e-mail so that you have a written record. Include your student ID (if they have given you one otherwise your full name and date of birth) in the subject line of the e-mail to make it easy for them to locate your file.</p>
<p>It may be overkill - but I do like to e-mail all of the schools where FA has been applied for once you think you have done everything just to be sure they do, in fact, have all requirements. If, for example, a particular college has their own form that you need to do in addition to the FAFSA and you overlooked it on their website - they will inform you of this, and so forth.</p>