<p>Okay, so I qualify right?
My parents make 40-42k$ a year AT MOST, and my dad might lose his job, so the odds are of it going down...</p>
<p>I'm on free/reduced lunch at school. Free freshman, reduced sophomore. I will be reduced my Junior and final year of high school.</p>
<p>Forgive me, but I don't know much at all about financial aid. I know the basics, but not alot about EFC and all that.</p>
<p>What does it mean to have a Simplified EFC?
Thanks!</p>
<p>it means that any cash or monetary assets you have are NOT part of the EFC calculation</p>
<p>BTW, when you go to the FAFSA, it will ask for the Adjusted gross income, which is usually a different number than Gross pay (it’s usually lower than gross pay)</p>
<p>So, since cash is not a part of the EFC, I’m guessing that’s good?
I’m looking into one or two private schools… so qualifying for Simplified EFC will help me, and I’d most likely getting more money?</p>
<p>And Adjusted Gross Income… seems confusing. It might be a little lower but idk if it’d make that big of a difference.</p>
<p>a lower EFC doesn’t GUARANTEE more $$ from colleges. I could help with a bigger Pell Grant if you qualify for that. It WILL help with colleges that meet full need, but they use more info than just the FAFSA EFC to determine need (and may take cash into consideration)</p>
<p>Look at your parents W-2 for 2008 and their income tax form. you will see where the numbers go and what I’m talking about regarding how the AGI is different from Gross pay</p>
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<p>It may or may not make a difference. The primary home and retirement accounts are already protected under FAFSA rules. Then parents have a certain amount of asset protection based on the number of parents and the age of the older parent (for instance a 2 parent family where the older parent is 50 has @ $55,000 in asset protection). Only if your parents have assets over all this will they have any affect on your FAFSA EFC. If they don’t have this much in assets then the simplified needs test makes no difference to you.</p>
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The simplifies needs test is for FAFSA only. If your private schools require CSSprofile then that has no simplified needs test (and requires you to report the primary home and retirement accounts). Schools that require CSS usually use the FAFSA information for any federal aid and CSS for their own institutional aid. If you have a lot of assets they will be considered by schools that use CSS.</p>
<p>I don’t think we have any assets so, I don’t think that will make a difference. Thanks for the information!!</p>