<p>I recently completed FAFSA online and signed it with a PIN. However, the PIN did not work for my parents, so they are mailing in a signed sheet. Anyway, the FAFSA submission confirmation sheet told me my estimated EFC. It says that my family is expected to pay 55,733 a year, which is absolutely insane. My parents are both teachers are earn about 140,000 a year combined. They told me that they cannot even pay one fifth of that EFC amount. Is this an error? I have never heard of anyone's EFC being this high. I have worked hard all of my life and am applying to some relatively selective schools. I don't want to be forced to go to a SUNY school. Also, my parents have money in savings plans for me and my sister, but there is not enough money to meet the EFC. Someone please give me some hope and tell me that my actual EFC will be much different. When I did the estimated EFC calculator on collegeboard.com it told me around 21,000 for private, 25,000 for public. Thanks.</p>
<p>Your EFC would be the same regardless of private or public school. That is the amount you as a family must contribute. I suggest you go over the information to make sure you did not double count something such as your parents putting down support monies for you. Also what did they pay in federal taxes last year? The other issue is thier assets--do they have their own business or own some buildings or a have any big ticket assets? The accounts in your name are going to be hit a full 35% for starters--that is the rule for federal methodology so if they put away a tidy sum that could hurt. You might want to look for so financial aid workshops being held that can go over the figures with you so you can see where the flag is and whether it is legitimate or a mistake.</p>
<p>No big assets. Their income tax was $17,000. Does it still sound like it should be around 55,000 for EFC?</p>
<p>I would estimate their EFC would be more like $35,000. But if you have alot of money in your name that is going to be used for tuition at 35%.</p>
<p>Many middle income families are in same boat. Our EFC was $12,000 and as that was about the cost of an instate public college, we wouldn't be eligible for aid. We decided that it was more cost effective to take same amount of money and apply for private where they met 100% of need.
But you can see why many middle income families are going for instate public schools. Nobody wants to have to take out huge loans or even lower their standard of living.</p>
<p>Ok, I found the mistake. For worksheet B, it asks for money being saved for college. That number is 29,316. Well, I accidentally put that number down for my savings also. It just said enter the number from worksheet B, so I assumed it wanted it twice for both parents and student. Ahhh, I hope this is easy to correct. Now I have to wait until the FAFSA is processed to change everything. It is difficult to do this by myself. Most of my friends' have their parents do everything for them. Unfortunately, my parents do not know much more than I do about this process. Does anyone know if my EFC will significantly change? Thanks for the quick replies.</p>
<p>jamminjb5, go over it again line by line and make sure you are not double counting for yourself. Any asset and money coming into the house should be entered only once, not for you and for the parents.</p>
<p>Our family income is about $140,000 per year. We do have a little money in savings because of a small inheritance when my mom died. Our EFC is $41,000.</p>
<p>Jm5 -- Unfortunately, for wage earners that make >$90k, the EFC grows geometrically. PR has a pretty good book that is helpful in completing fafsa, page by page: Paying for College Without Going Broke -- its available on Amazon while you wait for the fafsa to be processed. Moreover, the book explains the 'rationale' of formulas. Don't forget any large medical expenses not covered by insurance.</p>
<p>btw: Your parents income puts your family in the top ~10% of household income in the U.S. The top 5% income starts at ~$154k, according to the Census Bureau and IRS.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help. Wow, my parents are not willing to spend over 10k a year I think.</p>
<p>I would say that with income of $140,000 that your FAFSA will probably be around $40,000. I know several families in the same boat. Some took out huge loans and some chose cheaper schools or schools where they were offered merit scholarships. Yes, it's harsh, but that's the way it is for the upper middle class.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Wow, my parents are not willing to spend over 10k a year I think.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>This underscores a very important point. Students and parent should discuss the finances of college BEFORE the student applies to schools. Finaid applications do not consider what the family WANTS to pay. They consider what the family CAN pay. We aren't thrilled that we didn't qualify for need based aid (we didn't expect to), but we are paying the bills with a little tightening of our discretionary spending. Also, we made a decision as a family that we were willing to do so before DS applied to colleges.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many parents and students do not think about the expense until they are right in the thick of things. They may have set aside a sum of money each year and made the kids put away birthday money, bonds, earnings away as well, but they just blindly assume that if the kid gets in, the money will come. And many of the reassurances given by fianacial counselors and books reinforce this thinking. What they are saying is that kids and families should not necessarily rule out expensive private colleges entirely based sheerly on the numbers, but should explore all options. It does not mean the money is sitting there and waiting for the gifted child to come and collect it. I see parents each year who are dazed, bitter, confused, upset to find out how hard it is just to find out how much they are entitled to get in financial aid and then are outraged at how much FAFSA and Profile tell them they are expected to pay.</p>
<p>Thumper, I did discuss the finances with my parents when I was choosing schools. I am applying to 5 state schools and 1 private school. The thing is, my parents don't want me to take out any loans at all. I just assumed that I would at least get some amount of money from the colleges that I am applying to. I was told that my EFC would be around 25,000 and I would be able to get some type of merit aid possibly. Also, my parents have told me that they CANNOT pay over 10,000 a year, not that they do not want to pay that much money. It makes me so mad that my only option will be SUNY Geneseo out of all the schools in the nation. I feel like I wasted so much time filling out applications.</p>
<p>I don't think it is realistic not to take out any loans unless you have enormous amounts of money saved up.
If a house and car are important enough to borrow money for ( my grandparents would disagree, they paid cash), certainly the only thing that you can never lose, your education, is important enough to take out small loans each year.
Ok your parents are only willing to spend $10,000. ( I doubt your parents can't spend more- of course they can. We spend $10,000 and our income is less than half of your parents and we live in an expensive part of country)
You can earn at least $3,000 summer for college.
You are probably eligible for subsidized loans or even if you aren't the interest is generally very low for Stafford loans.
There are many things you can do to reduce costs besides only applying to instate schools.
Save money on books, transportation, housing etc.
Get an on campus job to pay for expenses during school year. even if you are not eligible for work study, campus jobs are much more flexible than off campus and give you a way to meet more people
There are ways to get a college education. Even if your parents only make $140,000 you can figure out ways to attend a good school</p>
<p>Once again, thanks for all the comments. Yes, I know my parents can spend more than 10,000, but I cannot talk about this issue with them. They immediately get angry every time I bring it up. I have been working to earn money for college. Somehow I will convince them to let me take out some loans...</p>
<p>I messed mine up too- waiting for the 3 days to be up so I can fix it. I accidentally told them my parents make TWICE as much as they do.</p>
<p>jamminjb5 </p>
<p>I have no advice. I just wanted to say how sorry I am that your parents get angry when you bring up how much they can pay. If there is some real extenuating circumstance, they should just tell you rather than keep secrets and be angry about it.</p>
<p>I planned from the day each child was born to pay for his or her undergrad education. There was a time not too long ago that we were making about what your parents do, but we still managed to pay everything that was not covered by my oldest child's merit aid. We are even paying off her loans. </p>
<p>Stories like yours make my kids come to me and thank me for being who I am. They say they cannot even imagine in their wildest dreams parents who would get angry at them for such a reasonable questions. Again, I am sorry. It seems normal to you, perhaps, since it is all you have every known - but believe me, it is not normal behavior!</p>
<p>Voronwe, that was a really nice thing to say. Thanks for understanding.</p>
<p>I'm in a very similar situation regarding family income. I've filled out a couple EFC calculators online. My FAFSA EFC will be about 30k and by the institutional methodology roughly 40k. However, my parents feel that they wouldn't be able to contribute any more than about $5000 a year towards my education, and that's assuming they tighten up discretionary spending fairly heavily. Part of the problem is that we have a lot of investments that they are simply unwilling to sell right now but that the colleges count as assets. How is it possible that colleges our situation so differently? My parents basically feel that we're being screwed over for being fiscally responsible and for deciding that a large house was important to them (which is tying up a <em>lot</em> of money each month), and I can't really argue with that. Any thoughts on the matter?</p>
<p>And a separate but related question: are retirement funds counted as assets, even though they can't reasonably be touched right now?</p>
<p>birdofprey, explain to your parents that only the lucky among us even get to choose between a large house, our investments and well educated children.</p>