<p>based on the FA package offered and knowing the average % of financial needs met from the common data set? This would be for a school using the CSS profile, I know what our federal EFC is.</p>
<p>Average % of need met doesn’t tell you anything…so that’s not going to help.</p>
<p>Whatever a CSS school doesn’t give you with aid is essentially your EFC for that school.</p>
<p>It’s not as if you can take the avg % of need met and come up with some EFC.</p>
<p>It is perfectly OK to call the financial aid office at that college/university and ask them to talk you through their financial aid calculations for your family.</p>
<p>Use the calculators on their web sites.</p>
<p>Average % of need met has nothing to do with any ONE student.</p>
<p>It would be different if a school had a policy that stated that it promised to meet 80% of the need of EVERY student. Then you could “do the math” and figure out that the school determined your “EFC” to be X and need to be Y…and then they gave you 80% of Y. </p>
<p>But, it doesn’t work that way.</p>
<p>Avg % of need met includes a whole bunch of kids who had very high EFCs so their need was met 100% with a student loan. So those stats “throw off” the others. That means that those with low EFCs likely get a lesser % of need met. </p>
<p>It’s much harder to meet the need or even come close to meeting need of a low EFC child. </p>
<p>And when dealing with OOS publics, the numbers are really going to be misleading because most of the students have instate COAs so meeting their need is much easier. </p>
<p>You’ll have 3 in college in the fall, so your EFC is probably lowish for each. At schools that don’t meet need, there isn’t a calculation to determine EFC. Whatever they don’t cover is what you pay…so essentially that is your EFC.</p>