<p>EFC is expected family contribution, or what schools think you and your family can pay. (It may be different from what you and your family actually can or are willing to pay.)</p>
<p>Private schools which are very generous in financial aid can be cheaper than publics for many family income ranges. However, most of these are super-reach schools for admissions (e.g. Stanford), or are low safety schools throwing lots of merit scholarship money around to attract students with much higher stats than they typically attract.</p>
<p>@ClassicRockerDad
Ah,that makes it simpler. I grew up with liberal bias, so I can see your point about not going to a liberal-only school. I prefer to be more neutral in debates, so I could be one of those lower degrees of liberal.
That could work.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Is there a way to figure out the EFC? Does it vary between colleges? Is it a percentage of income or something similar?</p>
<p>Nothing in between? That is a bit odd, but it makes sense.</p>
<p>However, all of this is dependent on information your parents have. If they do not want to share it with you to the extent necessary, they should do the research to at least estimate EFC so that you can research schools’ reputations for financial aid and figure out which ones are likely to be affordable.</p>
<p>You may be on track to becoming one of those posters who about next April 1 or so (when the FA letters come out) is posting messages like “OMG my parents can’t pay anything near what it’s going to cost me to go to college. How can I borrow $200,000 with my good looks and good intentions as collateral?” Or, as another poster has said, there may be a community college in your future.</p>
<p>You need a financial safety on your list - a place you’re SURE you can get into and are SURE you can afford. (Two would be even better.) I don’t know much about California schools, but one of the CSUs might fit that bill.</p>
<p>CSUs (including the Cal Polys) are less expensive than the UCs, for both in and out of state.</p>
<p>If your EFC ends up being pretty high (i.e. little or no financial aid), but your parents balk at paying full UC in-state prices, consider University of Minnesota Twin Cities, a well respected flagship university whose cost of attendance for out-of-state students is less than the cost of UC in-state.</p>
<p>YES there is a way to figure out your EFC. Google FAFSA 4Caster.</p>
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<p>I’d recommend doing as many EA as possible for the schools that are already on your list. EA is awesome. Imagine you apply to UChicago, Caltech (note the spelling), and MIT. If you get into even one of those in mid-December, you might not want to bother with ANY of the remaining options in late December. This is assuming that your official EFC matches what your Family Expects to Contribute.</p>
<p>
Only you can answer that. The essays are really important - you don’t want them to look like the stuff you turn in for English class that you did the night before. My son isn’t much of a writer, and IS a bit of a perfectionist, and he spent hours on each essay. </p>
<p>Chiming in with all the others - you REALLY need to have the money talk with your parents. Show them this thread and see how much we all want you to know where you stand.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
I plan to go to the financial aide forum after I am done here, which could be pretty soon. My parents have agreed to finally start help working on it, so that is good.</p>
<p>@annasdad
Hopefully not, we shall see.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus (again)
Oh, I cut Michigan off my list BECAUSE it was a public college out of state. >.></p>
<p>@GeekMom63
Why is Caltech not CIT like MIT?
I should probably be finished with applications in time, whenever they finally officially come out. How do I tell when they do and which is the right year?</p>
<p>I almost never do things the night before, I never have time. I have two rough drafts so far for the UC system; if prompts are similar, can I recycle essays?
I have been talking to them about it quite a bit over the last few days, they will probably sit down and work with me later today or tomorrow.</p>
Sign up on Common Application web site and it will help you through. For other schools, their websites should help.</p>
<p>
Absolutely - just make sure you change school names and make the flavor fit the new prompt. You don’t want the MIT application to say “And Caltech is my most favorite school ever!”</p>
<p>@GeekMom63
MasTech just does not have the same ring to it…
I am signed up, but it is still set up for last year. When does it update?
Good, good, good, I will probably do that. Though if I use the World Game for the Common Application Essay, then I can not use it for college-specific essays. I will work it out.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Ah, University of Minnesota as never too high on my list.</p>
<p>In other news, it turns out that my family makes enough income to pretty much be the poorest without receiving simple financial aide, so we are now saving up like crazy apparently despite the fact that they claimed that they had been saving the whole time. At least we are not too late, I guess.</p>
My son isn’t much of a writer, and IS a bit of a perfectionist, and he spent hours on each essay. </p>