<p>Silverado, most people are not in a category to get a whole lot of money by rearranging their assets. The ones who usually do have certain situations that are often addressed in financial aid forums. </p>
<p>FAFSA gives your family its Expected Family Contribution (EFC). However, that number in itself can mean nothing. If it is below a low threshhold, about $5000, your child is eligible for the PELL grant. The maximum Pell is for $5300, and that is with a 0 EFC. Very few middle class families will fall into this category, regardless of how they shift their assets without throwing in the towel completely. If your child is PELL eligible, other grants MIGHT also be awarded, depending on your school, your child’s major, your state. The other thing the EFC determines is eligibility for some subsidized loans. Again, the amounts are not a lot. Everyone can get a non subsidized loan.</p>
<p>A problem with the FAFSA is that few if any schools guarantee to meet the need calculated from it. The schools that tend to meet the largest % of their defined need, define it themselves with their own apps or PROFILE. Those schools also tend to cost a lot more money.</p>
<p>So what usually happens is that you can either go to a state school with little aid offered or a private school with a need package that brings the cost to close to the state school cost. That is what the usual middle income family faces. </p>
<p>So you read the way FAFSA calculates your EFC, do a few trial runs with on line calculators to see if moving some things around can make a difference, and do the same with some PROFILE calculators from schools that your child might like. That gives you some idea what you can expect to get. You read up on the rules so that you are not right on the border of some cut off that could make a difference in financial aid.</p>
<p>I’ve found that by picking colleges carefully with an eye for cost is the best way to have a good choice of price options. If your student has great stats, and you apply to schools where they are in demand, you get the benefit of some merit or merit within need money.</p>