<p>I am a Canadian ED applicant. </p>
<p>The Financial Aid application for the school that I'm applying to instructs me to explain any difference in income between 2009 and 2010 if it's over $3000.</p>
<p>My dad moved jobs halfway through 2009 for a much much better paying one. In addition, my mom went from part-time to full-time. Because the 2009 tax forms reflect my dad's income prior to his new job and my mom's part-time income, it is significantly less than the estimated 2010 income. The difference between the two years is ~$50,000. I intend to explain to the college just as I did above. </p>
<p>I also tried using the EFC calculator (both CC and CB) and went from 0 for 2009 to ~$6000 for 2010. When I fill out the part in the FA application that asks me how much my family is willing or expected to contribute should I punch in 0 or 6000? </p>
<p>Okay, so I guess my questions, in summary, are these:</p>
<p>1) Is my explanation for the $50,000 difference sufficient? Should I provide further details? Would I cause confusion to the financial aid officers with that sort of explanation? I want to be as clear as possible. </p>
<p>2) Did I use the EFC calculator correctly? They all seem to be designed for American tax info, so it was a little weird for me to try and force in Canadian tax info into it. But does going from 0 EFC to 6000 EFC because of $50,000 difference in annual income sound reasonable? </p>
<p>3) If the financial aid application asks me how much my family is willing or expected to contribute should I use 2009 info and punch in $0 or should I use 2010 info and punch in $6000? Personally, it makes more sense for me to use 2010 info since that is the income that my parents will be using for my 2011-2011 tuition...but I was just wondering if I HAVE to use 2009 info. </p>
<p>Any help is appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Glad you can explain the difference in income levels. I think your explanation makes sense.<br>
I’m not sure whether the $6K amount for EFC.
From my understanding it doesn’t matter what you put for how much your family is willing to contribute. The school will calculate what your family share should be.</p>
<p>Thanks…so it doesn’t matter whether I say my EFC is 0 or 6000?</p>
<p>What was old income? Seems like new efc should be a lot more than 6k</p>
<p>old income was around 25,000 and new income is around 80,000. We are a family of 5 and both of my sisters are in college.</p>
<p>Was that the income before taxes and will both sisters be undergrads next year.</p>
<p>Yes to both questions.</p>
<p>Realize that the EFC is not necessarily what you’ll pay, it’s the least you will pay. If you are applying to schools that use Profile, they will look at any home equity and other things potentially. What you put you want to pay does not matter.</p>
<p>Thanks for that input, Redroses. However, I still want to know if I’m being reasonable with the explanation of ~$50,000 increase in income as well as the 6000 in EFC. </p>
<p>I just don’t want to be clueless.</p>
<p>I think your explanation is fine…dad got a better job and mom now works full time.</p>
<p>I bet they’re more concerned about big decreases in income…not big increases.</p>
<p>Where are you applying ED?</p>
<p>“EFC” is a FAFSA term, and as a Canadian I don’t believe you can even file a FAFSA. Maybe I’m wrong. Or perhaps you’re talking about the CSS Profile or some other financial aid application?</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids - I am applying to UPenn ED. Do you still think my EFC should be more than 6K? </p>
<p>@rentof2 - I thought EFC was a FAFSA term, too. I was going to straight-up estimate and pull figures from my head but thought it would be better to at least try to use some sort of calculator. I looked at collegeconfidential’s EFC calculator and it actually had “canadian provinces” as one of the options so I used that and got ~6000 as my EFC.</p>
<p>Also I don’t think UPenn requires CSS Profile. On their checklist of paperwork for Canadians, they only have their own independent application, and tax returns.</p>
<p>I don’t know if UPenn requires CSS Profile for int’ls or not. </p>
<p>It’s hard to tell what UPenn is going to determine your family contribution to be?</p>
<p>was that a question or a statement?</p>