<p>Stanford makes it appear their financial aid is very simple and straight forward based on family income. My dad filled out the FAFSA and the EFC is higher than what we would have expected. Does Stanford use the FAFSA to determine what the family pays or do they use their own calculations?</p>
<p>Our d is a junior. In addition to the FAFSA, we’ve had to send Stanford a copy of our tax returns and W-2s. Our experience has been that Stanford has come up with more money than the estimator each year.</p>
<p>Does Stanford expect someone to pay the EFC or do they usually expect less than the EFC? My FAFSA showed an EFC of $12,000 and the Stanford calculator was something like $8,500. Which is more accurate? I would assume the Stanford calculator. I am not sure if I will get any financial aid info at the time of acceptance (if accepted) because the FAFSA was late. My dad also submitted the CSS/IDOC tax documentation late. I need to have some good idea of what I will pay. I have to accept/decline another full-ride scholarship by Feb 2. I don’t know if Stanford will have any financial info for me.</p>
<p>Stanford didn’t make it “appear” that way. Stanford advertises the simplified version - obviously for practicality reasons, but if you weren’t aware that financial aid isn’t a simple “oh that’s your post-tax income? well here’s the financial aid” then you didn’t research college financial aid enough.</p>
<p>Stanford doesn’t use the the FAFSA to decide your aid; they use the CSS PROFILE, which you’ll be required to fill out and which is more inclusive/informative. Neither the FAFSA nor the CSS PROFILE can tell you what your EFC would be at any given college, because the college simply uses the data that you fill in to plug into their *own *formulas. For example, when considering assets, Stanford caps the consideration of home equity at 1.2x annual income. They also don’t consider retirement assets like 401k’s, even though the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE require that info.</p>