<p>*Do you know what your EFC is? Or how much your parents can afford to spend? *</p>
<p>*I have no idea about either. *</p>
<p>Ok…you need to find this info out FIRST… </p>
<p>Look at it this way…when you would make up your birthday list for your parents, do you do it with no idea of how much they’d be willing to spend? There would be no point to putting a new car on your birthday list if you knew that they only spend $200 on your birthday, right? </p>
<p>the same goes with making a college list. If you have no idea how much your parents will pay (or how much aid you might qualify for) then you could be wasting valuable time researching schools that will never be affordable. </p>
<p>first find out how much they’ll pay each year.</p>
<p>then find out your likely EFC…a rough estimate is about 23% of gross income (more if they have a lot of assets/savings.) Use a FA calculator to get a better idea.</p>
<p>Most schools do NOT meet need, therefore most families are expected to pay MORE than their EFCs.</p>
<p>If your family has an unaffordable EFC then that is another problem.</p>
<p>If you have a non-custodial parent, that can be a problem as well.</p>