Is the EFC generally accurate?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Parents who have children (or have had children) in college: Do you happen to know if the initial EFC is at all accurate? It would be great if it is, but I'm not getting my hopes up.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I got two different opinions using EFC calculators. The one for Princeton was great! It showed a much lower EFC than the FAFSA estimator. I have no idea how people are supposed to come up with such enormous sums of money every year. But that spurred us on to try to find potential schools that gave merit aid and that the final yearly price tag would fall into a range that we found affordable for us, without additional loans or draining retirement funds. These kinds of schools are out there, especially in the lower half of USN&WR's Top 100. Not that the rankings are everything, but once you get beyond the top 30-40, the possibilities at these great schools begin to open up.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the reply, digmedia. </p>

<p>I should add that I was talking specifically about the FAFSA EFC. Sorry about leaving that out.</p>

4

<p>I'm not sure what you mean by "accurate." Do you mean that what they calculate will be close to what you think you can afford? If your income and net worth are very low, then it probably will be. If you income is moderate or high, you might be surprised by what they think you should pay. If your income is very high, you won't need to fill out the FAFSA anyway.</p>

5

<p>Well my family's income isn't extremely high, but it's moderate-high and I was expecting a high EFC. However the EFC FAFSA gave us was about $27,000/year, which was significantly lower than I had expected. Can I rely on this number?</p>

6

<p>well my experience has been that PROFILE does a better job at finding hidden dollars taht FAFSA does not ( like equity) rather than hidden expenses, so if the FAFSA EFC is $27,000 then unless something is wonky, then that is what your EFC is.
Our experience is that the finaid.com calculator was pretty right on with the FAFSA calculator and even though we had to take out loans to pay EFC the school wouldn't give aid past what FAFSA identified as need.</p>

7

<p>Different colleges determine their own EFC is different ways sometimes basing it on the FAFSA and sometimes on the PROFILE and sometimes using a formula all their own. That is why if your child is admitted to five schools which fulfill 100% of your need, you will likely get five different amounts of financial aid. For example, last year there was a three thousand dollar difference between Wesleyan and Tufts for my child.</p>

8

<p>I would say it is accurate-most folks have the opposite reaction however, wondering how they could be expected to pay that.</p>

9

<p>Hmm okay, thanks for the opinions everyone. I just talked to my Mom about this and while she's pleased with the results, we're worried that the PROFILE will completely ruin everything because most of our money is in our house. (I'm not sure exactly how this works, so forgive my ignorance, however I do know that my parents paid the mortgage off completely a few years ago and our house is worth a decent amount.) Do you think this will completely negate the FAFSA estimate? (We submitted a few days ago, have yet to hear back.) I don't understand how a house can count towards money if it clearly cannot be used to pay...</p>

10

<p>lauren87,
does the school use FAFSA or PROFILE?</p>

11

<p>Depends on the specific school with the profile. Schools like Emory do take that into account others don't.</p>

12

<p>5 out of the 8 schools I applied to require both the PROFILE and FAFSA.</p>

13

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<p>Because if your house if fully paid for your parents have something called equity. They can take out a loan using the equity in their home as collateral. They will be expected to do so at least in part if the school requires the Profile.</p>

14

<p>Oh, okay, thank you for clearing that up. So the EFC is probably going to be significantly higher with the PROFILE's estimate, correct?</p>

15

<p>Try running an EFC estimator with institutional (PROFILE) methodology. You're going to have to wait for the actual package to see how things work out. Have the house paid for will increase EFC with PROFILE.</p>

16

<p>Not necessarily. The EFC will differ from school to school. Federal loan rates will be based on the FAFSA data that you submit. Different schools use different data obtained from the Profile. some will use home equity as indicative of a family's ability to pay more of the college costs, while other schools will not use that information. There is no completely accurate way to determine how the EFC will come out at any given school for your unique financial situation until you are admitted and the school makes you a financial aid offer. It is at that point where you can try to determine their exact formula and see how flexible they can be given your situation.</p>

17

<p>Ok. Well I guess it's just a waiting game then. Thank you all so much for the advice! I'll pass it along to my parents right away.</p>