<p>I filled out the collegeboard EFC calculator and it says my EFC is 60k. However, my parents say they cant afford anything over 20-25k a year. Is this calculator is always accurate or is it sometimes off?</p>
<p>It’s only as good as the information fed into it. If your information was accurrate the results should be pretty close. My estimated EFC is right around what the college calculators said it would be.</p>
<p>Many if not most parents feel exactly like yours, their EFC looks crazy and unaffordable to them. Try merit aid schools.</p>
<p>If you have put in accurate information from your parents’ and your tax returns, then it should be in the right ball park. I have always had good luck with it, in looking at both the IM (Institutional Methodology) and the FM (Federal Methodology). </p>
<p>Of course at this point in time, no one has their 2010 Tax returns done, so if there is not much of a difference between the 2009 & 2010 income, then your numbers should be a good estimate. </p>
<p>Yes, agree, start looking at schools where you will get great merit aid. There are threads regarding merit aid, with lots of great suggestions!</p>
<p>EFC is frreegin crazy. It assumes that parents are simply willing to dip into their annual income by 20 to 30%…and pay for junior’s education by moving to a smaller home, selling a car, eating one meal a day, and wearing monks robes. This while paying huge taxes so that the less fortunate can change their lifestyle not one iota and get a free and clear education at all the schools that offer to cover all need-based expenses. OH, and if you’ve managed to save anything to help junior…they count that against you too…just to make good and sure that you feel ripped off by having any modicum of success. So junior, and princess get to go to giant impersonal state school which we can barely afford, while those less fortunate get to go to private school fully paid because they’ll cover everything. Pretty nice.</p>
<p>*I filled out the collegeboard EFC calculator and it says my EFC is 60k. However, my parents say they cant afford anything over 20-25k a year. Is this calculator is always accurate or is it sometimes off? *</p>
<p>Just because your parents say that they can/will only pay $20-25k per year, that does NOT mean that the EFC calculator is wrong.</p>
<p>Many, many people have EFCs that aren’t affordable…maybe because their mortgages are too high, or they own property/assets that can’t be sold, or for some other reason.</p>
<p>Are you a junior? I hope you’re not a senior.</p>
<p>If you are a junior, then you’re going to need to look for schools that will give you ENOUGH merit money so that the remaining costs are less than $25k per year.</p>
<p>$25k per year is a generous amount.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>OP…</p>
<p>*SAT: 1820 </p>
<p>ACT Composite: 27</p>
<p>GPA: 3.8</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>You’ve applied to a bunch of expensive privates and OOS publics. </p>
<p>I hope you have a financial safety somewhere in there.</p>
<p>Did you apply to an instate public?</p>
<p>BTW…in your other thread, you mentioned that you’re an actor and you’ve been in commercials, movies, and TV… That means that you have an acct somewhere with money saved for you. That money can be accessed for your education. Are you going to do that?</p>
<p>Mitch-I TOTALLY agree with you. The stuff they expect you to do is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Mom2-I am in VA so UVA, VT, and Mason are the in-state publics (even if I don’t get accepted I have guaranteed admission because of my dual credit NVCC classes)—as for my money, hell no I’m not going to tell them! All that would do is raise my EFC - if the time comes that I need to help my parents out, I’ll just give the money to them and then they can pay the school.</p>
<p>*in your other thread, you mentioned that you’re an actor and you’ve been in commercials, movies, and TV… That means that you have an acct somewhere with money saved for you. That money can be accessed for your education. Are you going to do that? *</p>
<p>*as for my money, hell no I’m not going to tell them! All that would do is raise my EFC - if the time comes that I need to help my parents out, I’ll just give the money to them and then they can pay the school. *</p>
<p>Since your EFC is already $60k, your money isn’t going to make a difference anyway. Your current EFC is too high for aid. At this point, raising your EFC to - say $99k - isn’t going to make ANY difference since $60k is already too high.</p>
<p>If your money is in an acct somewhere with your name on it, it will be found out. So, don’t risk fraud charges by not including it. </p>
<p>Anyway…you’ve applied to a bunch of OOS publics who don’t give aid to OOS students, so it’s not going to make any difference.</p>
<p>Expect to pay full freight.</p>
<p>BTW…that money in your acct has been set aside for such things as education expenses.</p>
<p>Do they really search around for your money? I have mine in an interest accruing account and if I were to take it out early, there is a sizable penalty and loss of interest that I would have earned. Do they expect you to take a 10-15k hit just so you can pay them? Also, can I really be charged with fraud? </p>
<p>And it’s not been set aside for education expenses-I put it in an account because I want to start a nest egg. Speaking metaphorically, I don’t want to dismantle the snowball right before it starts to roll.</p>
<p>Yes, they REALLY do search around for money in your name. Otherwise, people would just purposely not mention various accts that they have. I’m sure that you can understand that.</p>
<p>And, yes, you would be charged with fraud because there’s no way you’d be able to convince anyone that you and your parents just “forgot” about an acct of yours with multi-thousands in it. It’s one thing to forget about some tiny acct somewhere, but not one that holds the overwhelming majoring of your earnings. </p>
<p>And, if you were to take a $10k-$15k “hit” for early withdrawal, then you have a LOT of money in that acct. If this is somekind of CD acct, then there would be a time coming up to withdraw funds. </p>
<p>Are you just guessing at this $15k “hit” amount? Where are are you getting that figure. Seriously, you’d have to have a huge amount in a CD to get that kind of hit for withdrawing early. </p>
<p>Frankly, it was poor planning to have your money in an acct that would not be able to be withdrawn from in time for college if your parents didn’t have the intention of paying for all of your college. It’s not like college just kind of sneaked up on you. Your family has known that you’d be college-age in 2011 for about 18 years. </p>
<p>Why do you think someone else should give you financial aid, when you (the student) have the funds to pay for much/all of your education???</p>
<p>Well it actually did kind of sneak up on us - up until junior year I didn’t even want to go to college. </p>
<p>The 15k hit is including the interest that would have been earned if I didn’t withdraw early. And yes, it is a CD. It’s a long term one though so I can’t access it without a penalty until 2013. As far as poor planning goes, I never intended to use my money to pay for college, my parents always said they would.</p>
<p>But do you think they expect you to take it out anyways, even when I stand to lose a considerable amount?</p>
<p>It sounds like your parents are the ones who expect you to take the money out. They are the ones who told you they would pay for college and are now saying that there is a set amount they will pay for. Maybe you can work out with them that they will pay for your schooling in full, and then in 2013 when your money becomes available without penalty you can pay them back.</p>
<p>You aren’t going to get any need-based financial aid, however you may get some merit aid, or you may end up choosing a college which costs the amount that your parents are willing to pay. Not all schools cost $50k per year</p>
<p>^^So true…not all colleges cost 50 60 grand a year. $20-25,000 + a Stafford loan will get you many, many colleges and univerisites all over the country. Choice is yours how you move forward, plan accordingly.</p>
<p>*The 15k hit is including the interest that would have been earned if I didn’t withdraw early. And yes, it is a CD. It’s a long term one though so I can’t access it without a penalty until 2013. *</p>
<p>As mentioned above, you could borrow some from your parents and pay them back to avoid the hit. </p>
<p>Frankly, if you’re getting $15k in interest, then you have a bunch of money in that acct. </p>
<p>And, the bank may let you borrow against that acct at a rate that would be far, far less of a “hit”. </p>
<p>Of course, you could go to a state school and pay much less. Even some OOS publics might only cost you $30k. </p>
<p>Maybe you should quickly apply to an OOS school that would only cost you about $30k? You could take your parents $25k and then add a student loan. Then pay off the student loan when you have access to your money.</p>
<p>Your parents could also take out a Parent Plus loan and pay it off with your money when you have access to it.</p>
<p>Are you a junior or senior? If you’re a senior, where all have you applied?</p>
<p>If you’re only a junior, then where will you be applying?</p>
<p>As to the initial question about the accuracy of the CB EFC calculators: I ran the federal methodology calculator both last year and again this year, and the CB calculator was to-the-dollar accurate for our FAFSA result.</p>
<p>If you want to see which factors in your family finances most affect your FAFSA EFC, print out the formula from <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a> and work through it on paper. </p>
<p>Since you have a sizable amount of money in a long-term CD, you should speak with your banker about borrowing against that CD. When the CD matures, you could pay off that loan, set aside part of the remainder to pay for the next year of college, and then put the rest of the money into a series of laddered CDs. Don’t put all of it into a big CD that has such a distant maturity date. For example, you could put approximately one year’s college expenses in a 1 year CD, and another year’s into a 2 year CD, etc. Do check the CD rates at multiple financial institutions, and do compare them to the rates at Money Market checking accounts. Right now one of my credit unions is paying about 1.5% on 12 month CDs, and another one is paying 0.4 % for that same time period, but also 0.4% on a Money Market account that has a minimum balance of 25k.</p>
<p>Frankly I think the OP would be smart to spend $30,000 a year for college and leave the money making money. That extra $20,000 - $25,000 for a name school might not make as much difference in the long run of life as not spending the money in the savings account.</p>
<p>Oh I agree that the student shouldn’t borrow an extra $20k per year. I was suggesting a one time small loan against the CD…like maybe $5k to supplement the parents’ contribution. and then paying that back when money from the CD is available. </p>
<p>for this student, going to a pricey college isn’t likely going to make a difference in the long run…so no need to overspend on college.</p>
<p>Ok sorry guys-I’ve been visiting the UVA campus. Didn’t mean to leave you hanging.
I’m a senior- I applied to:
UVA
George mason
George washington-by the way, what are you opinions on GW? I’ve had mixed reviews.
University of Maryland
Fordham university
University of Miami
TCU
Baylor
UT Austin
SMU
University of San Diego
Occidental college
UCLA</p>