<p>OP, if you can reduce the EFC from $65K to $45K, where it could make a difference is possible in subsidied loans and workstudy at any number of schools, and also it does give some schools some wriggle room to give you aid. Some private schools do practice “enrollment management” and take a somewhat holistic approach to admissions and it is possible when a student is highly desired that though the PROFILE costs may come out a lot more than EFC, they can maybe make some adjustments. Also how business and certain assets are viewed such as LLCs can differ from school to school. </p>
<p>There was a student who was accepted to Swarthmore, on this board, wth an EFC that indicated financial aid was forthcoming, but Swarthmore, though one of the more generous schools out there, that do guarantee to meet full need as they define it through PROFILE, deemed that the family business assets and deductions precluded him from aid. The family appealed, to no avail. But another PROFILE school, Carlton, I think, assessed the business totally differently and came up with an acceptable package. So YMMV with PROFILE schools and so by reducing ones EFC, it is possible that some schools use an approach more like FAFSA than PROFILE.</p>
<p>One way to reduce EFC, is if you have, say $200K in assets, use it to pay off down your mortgage. That reduces your EFC by about $10K or so , depending on other assets and protection allowance. But PROFILE wants the value of your house. BUt house valuation is done on a reasonable quick sale figure with net proceeds, with some schools more lenient about the methodology, and also PROFILE schoool vary from not using the primary home values just like FAFSA to using full values, with most capping the values, I believe at either 1/2X or 2.4X income. So that move can reduce some PROFILE expected contributions more than others. </p>
<p>It comes down to the fact that it depends upon the schools, and they don’t release their fin aid formulas. </p>
<p>Also there are colleges that use FAFSA only, don’t meet full need for all students, but YOUR student if he is highly desired might be one that gets full or close to full need met.</p>