We did FAFSA for our twins today. We got the same EFC for each of them. Is the EFC amount per child or per family?
Per child
The EFC on the FAFSA you submitted for each twin is for that twin only. You indicated 2 in college…right?
So if kid one EFC is $20,000, and kid 2 EFC is $20,000, then your total for the family is $40,000
We got EFC $107k for each twin which is higher than we expected. Does Federal Government really expect us to pay $214K per year for two children in college?
If you got a $107,000 EFC for each of your kids…
- You have a HUGE income and assets.
- You made a mistake.
A $107,000 EFC for ONE student would indicate that you have an income that exceeds $350,000 a year and/or have significant assets. With that being the number for 2 kids, your income would be well over $600,000 a year. Is that the case?
But here is the good news…there is NO college that costs $107,000 a year. If your EFC is that high per kid…you will be full pay anywhere in terms of need based aid.
Is your income really that high with significant assets…or did you make a mistake.
^ with that EFC you won’t get any need based aid. You will still be eligible for nonsunsidized federal loans (your kids will) totally 27k over the 4 yrs. (5500/6500/7500/7500). Of course merit is worth shooting for depending on school and stats.
Not that it should matter to anyone else because these are personal decisions, but we are in a similar circumstance and chose to fill out FAFSA and accept the nonsubidized loan. We pay the interest in real time so the principal will never be higher than what was borrowed. We wanted ousr to have skin in the game relative to their intended area of study. NOt a big loan and easy to deal with as it’s not accruing interest.
2018 Income $360K, way less than $600K, non-retirement assets: $1.9mil. Household size is 5, we have another child in elementary school in addition to twins going to college in 2020.
We live in Nj, very expensive state. Is there an adjustment for this? I did not see in either FAFSA or CSS profile any questions regarding property taxes or insurance.
Well…your almost $2 million in non retirement assets would account for $110,000 of the family EFC, and a $350,000 income could easily add another $100,000 to the EFC…
So…that $107,000 per kid EFC sounds about right.
There is no allowance on the financial aid forms for living in a high cost of living area. There is no place to “explain” this.
But like I said…the colleges don’t cost $107,000 a year. You will only be expected to pay the full cost of attendance at the colleges.
We’re you hoping your kids would get need based aid? Or did you do the FAFSA so they could access the federally funded loan?
Hoping your kids qualify for some merit aid…which could ease the costs for your family.
LOL. I am not sure I would be game to post this. You have nearly 2 million in fungible non retirement spending money. That IS for college LOL. You have a lot of threads going back a while, this could not possibly be a surprise? Say the EFC was halved, you would still be full pay almost anywhere worth going to, what is the actual surprise?
The CSS profile does take into account where your primary residence is. My guess is it is your assets that are the main factor driving the EFC. A certain amount of assets is exempted from the calculation based on the age of the oldest parent. There is also a small exemption for “emergency reserve” based on the poverty line. The EFC is generally 5-6% of the remainder plus any amount considered from income.
I do not have 2 mil in assets. Because EFC / CSS do not take into account cost basis and tax rate. If you have $1 mil and your cost basis is 0 and your tax rate is 36% or even Federal 24% long term capital gain tax, you only have $760K, not 1 mil since $240K is effectively owned by IRS. I am not even talking about state capital gain or income tax cut from this $1 mil…
You might not have 2 million in assets after liquidating them, but you most certainly DO have almost 2 million in assets right now. Just like someone who owns a 1 million dollar house free and clear owns a 1 million dollar house. If they sold it, after fees they wouldn’t have a million dollars, but that doesn’t mean that the house is worth less than 1 million.
In one of your other financial aid threads you mention hefty 529’s for each of your 3 kids plus what sounds like significant assets in the stock market. The EFC is the minimum you’ll pay. COA hasn’t reached $100k+ yet, but I think some are ~$80k. If the schools your children want don’t offer merit and you can’t pay full price don’t let them apply there.
The formula isn’t saying that you have to liquidate 1.9 million dollars today, they are saying that you can afford to liquidate 5-6% of them per year to pay for college and using a portion of your $360k/year income to pay for the rest. Serious question: were you expecting to qualify for need based aid?
@helpingmom40 the asset protection allowance on the FAFSA is about $7000 max now. It has dropped significantly over the years. Frankly, a $7000 asset protection allowance for someone with nearly $2 million in assets isn’t going to reduce enough to qualify for need based aid.
@Al73 did you really think your twins would qualify for need based aid, or did you file the FAFSA for some other reason?
“”Does Federal Government really expect us to pay $214K per year for two children in college?””
well, no college costs $107k per year, so no.
but I can tell you that my sister has lots of assets (inheritance!!) and a high income and they were full pay at Vanderbilt and Tufts at the same time with two in college.
BUT…if you don’t want to be full pay, you can have your children apply to schools that will give them merit for their stats…or have them go to one of your instate schools and pay about $60k per year for both.
we can help you better if you tell us how much you plan on spending PER YEAR per twin.
where are they applying?
what are their stats?
what are their majors and career goals?
“”She plans to go to either Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, MIT or Rice””
ok it appears that at least one of your twins is applying (EA) to some pricey elite schools.
Did you run the NPCs on their schools’ websites? it would seem that if you did, you would have already seen that you’d be full pay at their schools.
if you can’t/won’t pay full price at your twins’ schools, then you need to tell them NOW. this has really gone on too long. it’s Nov. they’ve gotten their hearts set on expensive elite schools.
unless you decide to full pay (which will be about $500k for the two of them over 4 years), you and your H need to sit your twins down and first, apologize that y’all didn’t run the NPCs to learn that you’d be full pay at these schools. And, then tell them how much you will spend per twin per year…and that they need to find some schools that will have THAT net cost each year.
i just saw that your one twin wants OOS schools because she wants BioMedE.
I hope she understands that that undergrad major isn’t needed to have a career in bio med E. No biomedE grad school requires that major. and a grad degree is essential for a career in that area.
depending on whether she’s interested in biomedE research or prosthetics, she could choose ChemE or MechE as an undergrad major. and then do BioMedE at grad school (which again, is essential). that way she might be able to reserve some of her 529 $$$ to help pay for grad school.
I wouldn’t suggest doing a BioMedE masters degree while working…you asked that in another thread.
NJ has lots of public and private options where the twins might get merit aid if they have high stats.
Run net price calculators on their websites.
Rowan, Stockton might be options, in addition to Rutgers and some private colleges.
If your FAFSA EFC is high that just means you won’t qualify for federal and state grants, but they can borrow their $5,500 student loan.
WVU and some Ohio colleges like Miami of Ohio, U Toledo or Kent State might give generous merit
Since you can’t afford your EFC, don’t have them apply to lots of colleges that only award need based aid, you will be full pay there.