<p>They estimated my family's contribution at nearly $6,000 more than FAFSA did! When we saw FAFSA's, we were shocked--imagine our surprise at NU's idea of what we can pay. Did anyone else have this problem? Is the best plan to call NU and ask about this?</p>
<p>Have you applied to any other private schools besides NU? Most of them require the CSS Profile and use the Institutional Methodology to calculate your EFC. And that EFC is almost always higher that way than the FAFSA EFC -- usually by quite a lot -- since it takes into account home equity and lots of other things that FAFSA does not.</p>
<p>Also take into account that they expect around $2000-2500 to come from earnings this summer (that's what they told me atleast, and that brought my total EFC down to about the FAFSA number). Though that still doesn't account for the extra $4k you're expected to pay, maybe call in and ask?</p>
<p>I believe it is very common for the CSS EFC to be higher than the FAFSA one as they take into account things that FAFSA does not. Occasionally it works the other way - but mostly CSS is higher. And each school uses the CSS information differently so there are large variations in CSS EFCs.</p>
<p>It is probably always worth asking though.</p>
<p>yeah...same problem. My expected contribution was around 3 times my EFC. It was a good surprise :D</p>
<p>My expected contribution was less than my FAFSA EFC.</p>