<p>I am going to be at a $50,000+ plus top private LAC this fall. I received my EFC from FAFSA and it was slightly under 30,000. I know very little about the financial aid process. The college I am going to says it is need blind and will provide for all demonstrated need, however they have not given us very much at all. Based on my EFC, where does the 20,000+ extra come from? Does this mean I am automatically approved for 20,000+ in loans?
Thanks from a confused kid in need of help.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by the “extra” $20,000. Are you able to pay the 30,000 Expected Family Contribution out of pocket? Did the school not meet any of your $20,000 demonstrated need? Does the school require CSS as well as FAFSA?</p>
<p>You won’t be automatically approved for $20,000. You, the student, are eligible for $5500 in direct student loans. Any other loans would be parent PLUS loans, which your parent would have to apply for. Or private loans.</p>
<p>If they meet 100% of need & need is $20,000 then your package may be configured this way.
$5,500 Stafford loan
$2,500 Perkins loan
$3,000 work study
$9,000 school grant
But you should have gotten your financial aid package before you declared which school you were going to attend.</p>
<p>
I was reading from this^^, that the OP had received an FA award that did not meet their need.</p>
<p>Unga, from your other threads, it looks like you are going to Haverford. I don’t know anything about Haverford, but looking at their web page it does imply that they meet need without loans. It says their annual COA is $57,202 (holy cow!!), so with an expected family Contribution of $30,000 your need based on FAFSA would be around $27,202. But Haverford requires CSS as well to determine your need for institutional aid. That need may be different from your FAFSA need. Was there information on CSS that may have made your CSS “EFC” higher.</p>
<p>Many private schools use PROFILE as well as their own forms in Addition to FAFSA to determine need.
If FAFSA found EFC to be $30,000, it is not too difficult to imagine that PROFILE determined your family had additional income or assets to cover educational expenses.</p>
<p>Haverford does not include a loan as part of their package, so I expect that your EFC is actually higher than $30,000, if your package does not meet COA.</p>
<p>The school used CSS Profile and it sounds like it determined that your family contribution is much higher than your FASFA EFC.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC is rather meaningless to a CSS school for those whose EFCs are higher than 5000 (Pell). CSS schools don’t really use FAFSA, except to see if you qualify for any fed aid. </p>
<p>CSS schools consider home equity and other things that FAFSA doesn’t. Do your parents have home equity or are they self-employed or own their own business?</p>
<p>No, you don’t get $20k in loans because you have $20k in need according to FAFSA. Your parents can take out the loans if they want.</p>
<p>What aid did you get from your school?</p>
<p>Edited to add…I see that you were accepted ED over a year ago and took a gap year. You should have gotten your aid info a long time ago. Why is this coming up now???</p>
<p>Why are you just finding out what your aid is NOW? Are you a transfer student? If so, that may also be the problem. Many schools that meet need, only do it for incoming frosh.</p>
<p>Did you also file PROFILE? You need to talk to the financial aid office at Haverford. Completing the FAFSA is just the first step in applying for financial aid. The EFC generated just lets you know if you are eligible for federal PELL (you are not) and qualifies you for $5500 in Stafford loans as a student, in your own name, with up to $3500 possibly interest subsidized until after graduation. It also paves the way for your parents to apply for PLUS and for the school to offer you other federal funds such as the PERKINS loan. </p>
<p>If you just completed FAFSA recently and just got your EFC now, Haverford probably has not even processed all of this information. As I said earlier, you need to get in touch with them. The bulk of any money you may get will come from their funds, but if you did not meet their deadlines in getting PROFILE to them, you may not get the money. None of the funds come automatically. After you complete the FAFSA, you need to APPLY for those loans that you qualify for and fill out all sorts of paperwork. That’ s just the federal stuff. You still need to do whatever Haverford wants done to get any of their money. Call immediately.</p>
<p>Most “top private LACs” do use the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>This is an odd situation. The student was accepted ED in 2010, likely rec’d an FA pkg at that point, then opted for a gap year. </p>
<p>The student likely received a FA pkg in Spring 2011, and then another one this year. Why is the student now wondering about the amount of aid given? Why weren’t questions asked a long time ago?</p>
<p>Ditto what everyone said -did you file the Profile last admissions cycle and what was your package then compared to this year? Does the college require you to file the Profile every year? If so, did it get filed on time this year? If you don’t know the answers call the finaid office. If the answer is you did file all the appropriate paperwork on time, call the finaid office to find out how your determination was made.</p>