<p>[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>I played with this. family of 5, 1 in college, living in CA, oldest parent 49(a guess obviously).</p>
<p>I did this using 0 assets, and you would need to have 2 parents earning 135K to get an EFC of 29K, that isn’t chump change. </p>
<p>Yes, your situation isn’t optimal. But you are directing your anger to the wrong people. Unfortunately, it’s your parents that created the situation. They chose to come to the USA and make high wages in a high cost of living area. and You should have been able to foresee what your EFC was going to be using this calculator before you started applying to schools. You might have had better FA at a private school.</p>
<p>This is not the fault of the state of California or the US government.</p>
<p>I could ***** about the fact that as a single parent I get less than 1/2 the asset protection allowance as a married couple. But there is no point in doing that.</p>