<p>Out of state, in state, private? The family makes the same amount no matter what schools someone applies to, So it would make sense for it to be the same across the board. No??
Sorry if this is a dumb question.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC is the same regardless, but your cost of attendance will be very different. College don’t necessarily fill the gap for everything between your FAFSA EFC and your total cost of attendance. (A few do, but those are usually well-endowed private schools)</p>
<p>For example:
Your have a FAFSA EFC of $10,000
Total COA (cost of attendance) at in-state school is $20,000
You have $10,000 above your EFC to fill in – this can be grants, scholarships, loans, part-time work, etc. depending on the college.</p>
<p>–or–</p>
<p>Your have a FAFSA EFC of $10,000
Total COA (cost of attendance) at out-of-state school is $40,000
You have $30,000 above your EFC to fill in – this can be grants, scholarships, loans, part-time work, etc. depending on the college.</p>
<p>This is for publics. With private schools your state of residency is not relevant.</p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is the same whether you go to a $10,000 CC or a $50,000 private school. For most federal aid the maximum you are eligible for is also the same. If you are eligible for $4000 Pell at the $10k CC, you are eligible for $4,000 Pell at the $50,000 private school.</p>
<p>Private schools often also require CSSprofile which calculates a different basis for awarding institutional aid.</p>
<p>I applied to two in-state publics; one offered me 1k per year on tuition around 11k, and I was deferred at the other.</p>
<p>*Out of state, in state, private? The family makes the same amount no matter what schools someone applies to, So it would make sense for it to be the same across the board. No??
*</p>
<p>FAFSA EFC is the same.</p>
<p>However, in the LITERAL sense, your “expected family contribution” will not be the same - even though family income, etc, is the same.</p>
<p>OOS publics generally don’t care what your FAFSA EFC is except to see if you qualify for the small amts of fed aid. </p>
<p>You can have an EFC of 6000, and the OOS public can cost $35k, yet the school may only give you a 5500 student loan. 
So, that school is essentially expecting your 6000 EFC family to pay about $30,000 per year.</p>
<p>FAFSA EFC is almost always, but not always, the same from school to school. If one school verifies a FAFSA & the EFC changes, that doesn’t mean it will change for all schools. If another school doesn’t verify, they can use the unverified EFC.</p>
<p>I have verified files that other schools also verified & still came up with a different EFC than they did (of course, mine was the correct one … ;)).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If that’s true, that sucks.
It means that the EFC is useless.</p>
<p>It’s probably a moot point for me anyway.
I’m only at the EFC calculator stage and it came up with such a ridiculous number that whoever figures what parents can really afford must be from another planet.</p>
<p>EFC is not useless … the problem is, people don’t understand its use! It is intended as a number used to determine eligibility for federal aid and used when aid administrators package aid. It is NOT the amount a family is expected to contribute.</p>
<p>Families have to decide whether or not the amount the school is charging them is something they can afford to pay. Fortunately, there are MANY schools in the U.S., and many are affordable for those with high EFCs.</p>
<p>EFC is literally a qualification standard for federal aid - Pell Grants and loans. It does that very well. Parents aren’t expected to just use current income to pay your EFC. The expectation is they’ve been saving and can borrow to fund it all.</p>
<p>Xposted with Kelsmom.</p>
<p>Dear KM and ED,</p>
<p>Understand your explanations. (Interesting, BTW, that no one seems to use the words “mother” and “father” anymore.) Thanks.</p>
<p>And I noticed in another thread the somewhat harsh (but certainly not by usual Internet standards) posts about that people should have saved for college and that “the government” should not pay for students’ school, etc. And I agree. But . . .</p>
<p>Side note: I grew up near the bottom of “working class” and though we always had a roof and food to eat, my parents paid zero for my college and grad school education. I worked almost full time hours all through school and took out a huge loan for out-of-state grad-school tuition.</p>
<p>. . . again, based on the estimator calculations only, what comes up is … a quarter of a million dollars for four years! Is this normal?</p>
<p>Fafsa EFC is roughly 1/3 to 1/4 before tax income.
There are lots of ways to cut costs.
AP classes/tests in high school to place out of courses at university level.
Merit aid, especially NMS for those fortunate students who will qualify for other scholarships. If you are looking at those few schools which only offer need based aid, it is likely that a lower ranked school will offer merit.
First two years at a local community college and transfer. The name on your diploma will be the same whether you attended for 4 or 2 years.</p>
<p>I think the statement “those few schools that offer only need-based aid” is very misleading.</p>
<p>The list of schools that offer merit aid if your EFC is above the coast of attendance is small and shrinking fast. I see the difference even in the last few years between D1 (class of 2008) and D2 (class of 2012).</p>
<p>Not saying you can’t find any merit aid schools, but you need to find schools where your child really stands out (top 75th %ile as a rule) and you also need to be practical about what “good” merit aid amounts to.</p>
<p>I would say “good” merit aid is $10K a year. And “great” merit aid is $20K a year (for privates, as an example.) But remember that if your EFC is above the COA, that means you are still expected to pay $55/60K minus the $10K merit scholarship for schools with “good” merit aid…for a total of $45K to $50K/ year. </p>
<p>So when you start the process of searching for school, be very aware of what is available in merit aid to those with no need.</p>
<p>Don’t just go to info sessions and listen to them say that you should apply because they will find you the money out of their generous coffers. Know where you stand and be realistic.</p>
<p>After going through the process twice, I can tell you that we never received any miracle money. D1 received $19.5K from the school that said that was their max (to the penny). Other schools were in the ($10K to $15K range–matching what was realistic from their web sites.) She did not receive a penny from any university that did not give true merit aid. This time around, D2 rec’d nothing from NYU (as expected) and $14K from Pratt (which is good merit aid for them.)</p>
<p>That is why state universities are so popular in my upper “middle” class area. Many families are just above that cut off for need-based aid, and in order to save money, send their kids to state schools for full price rather than privates minus paltry merit aid.</p>
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<p>Just to be clear - you mean out-of-state state-schools are popular.</p>
<p>That’s interesting because stuff I’ve read say that with merit aid, it makes private schools much more attractive than state-schools.</p>
<p>IN state publics are popular. That is because they are relatively affordable for the middle class.</p>
<p>Sometimes private schools cost less than state schools. Other times they do not. My daughter’s very expensive private school cost us less than my son’s public (where he had a merit scholarship). My son did not have the interest (or the EC’s) for the schools where it would have cost us less than public … and his merit at other private schools, while good, was not good enough. A $40k private with a $15k scholarship costs $25 the first year … and more each year after that, while the scholarship stays static. The state school is less than $25, and the student can usually stay off campus for a whole lot less than the dorms - while private schools often do not offer that cost-saving option. </p>
<p>It is worth it to see what the privates will offer, but state schools are often the financial safety that ends up being the wisest financial choice for many.</p>
<p>Let me be clearer…</p>
<p>Assuming you have a private school at $55K - $15K Merit…the total cost will be roughly $40K. Schools may cost more or less, merit aid is variable.</p>
<p>An out-of-state, state college may run anywhere from $30K to $40K per year. Some give merit aid without need, but generally in the $5K range, if at all. So costs can be approximately $30K to $40K on average.</p>
<p>In NY, our in-state colleges are approximately $20K a year for in-state tuition.</p>
<p>So I would say, most students go in-state at full-tuition. ($20K range.) A good number go out of state to state schools in Delaware, Ohio, MD and Indiana. ($30K range). Some students go to privates known for merit aid (Northeastern, BU, GW, American, Muhlenberg, U of Miami,etc.) those will run in the $25K to $45K range depending on the cost of the school and the amt of merit money awarded.</p>
<p>Then there are some who go full fare to privates. Generally in the $50K to $60K range.</p>
<p>Markbass…also remember that you have to really look at the figures of what a school costs and what merit aid is offered (if at all.) If you have some need, then you are in a different category. Some schools will meet that need…others won’t. But in most cases you will still need to expect to pay your EFC.</p>
<p>I would say that if you do not qualify for aid (EFC too high), you need to determine how much you are willing to pay for a school.</p>
<p>If it is in the $20K range, then in-state is your best bet. If you can stretch to the $30 to $35K range, then you can probably cover either out of state schools (with or without merit aid) or lower cost private schools if you are awarded their top merit packages.</p>
<p>For higher priced privates (like GW or BU, etc) you are loking at costs totalling $60K minus $10-$15K in merit if you are lucky enough to get it.</p>
<p>Obviously, I am talking in broad strokes here.</p>
<p>*EFC is not useless … the problem is, people don’t understand its use! It is intended as a number used to determine eligibility for federal aid and used when aid administrators package aid. It is NOT the amount a family is expected to contribute.
*</p>
<p>EFC may not be useless, but the Feds should own the fact that they’ve invented a misnomer that should have been corrected a long time ago. It’s not as if EFC only recently no longer was what a family is expected to pay. </p>
<p>Until the Feds properly rename the number that is computed, the Feds are contributing to the confusion. The calculation should be named something like: Federal Aid Index or something similar.</p>
<p>The Feds go an demand that schools implement a NPC to help people determine affordability, yet they don’t look in their own backyard and fix a misnamed calculation which they could do with very little effort. Total stupidity to name something “Expected Family Contribution” and then say, “but oh, it’s not that at all.” Ridiculous.</p>
<p>Maybe it should be Expected Family Affordability because it’s the amount calculated as affordable based on income.</p>
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<p>finaid.org disagrees with you</p>
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</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Answering Your Questions | Glossary](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/questions/glossary.phtml#f]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/questions/glossary.phtml#f)</p>
<p>Know what EFC really stands for? Every F***ing Cent.</p>
<p>And in practical terms, annasdad, it is truly not what the family is expected to contribute. They aren’t going to have to contribute that much if the school costs less.</p>