Trying to figure out efc

Paying for College
1

<p>Ive done three of these "calculate your efc" with the same info and have come up with numbers from 16K to 102K. What is the deal here?</p>

<p>Question, if you have low income but have money in the bank how does that playout for your efc.</p>

2

<p>It depends. There are a lot of different factors.</p>

<p>For instance FAFSA has a formula called simplified needs that sometimes ignore assets if the AGI is under a certain amount. The cut off is $49,999. BUT meeting the income cut off alone is not enough. You also have to meet at least one of the criteria such as being eligible to file a 1040A or EZ. So one person with an AGI of 49,999 will be eligible, another person will not.</p>

3

<p>Well I dont file a 1040A as I have a home and itemize deductions. So are you saying that if your taxable income is under 50K, they dont look at your assets.</p>

4

<p>Only if you ALSO satisify one of the following: Eligible to file a 1040A/1040EZ OR someone in the household received federal means tested benefits within the past 24 months OR parent is a dislocated worker. Otherwise, assets are counted (there is an asset protection allowance).</p>

5

<p>No. I’m saying if you AGI (*not *taxable income - big difference) is under $50k and you meet one of the other requirements (file a 1040A/EZ or receive means tested benefits etc), then FAFSA may ignore assets. </p>

<p>CSS will not of course.</p>

6

<p>If you have little time, it would probably be wise to work through the EFC calculation by hand…it will give you a much better idea of how the formula works and what is contributing to your EFC. This EFC formula guide includes the rules for qualifying for the simplified EFC calculations and all the worksheets/tables you’d need (just use the ones marked A for dependent students):</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It may be helpful to refer to the actual FAFSA instructions to make sure you’re only including assets/income that are actually reportable for FAFSA:</p>

<p>[Completing</a> the FAFSA: Financial Aid from the U.S. Department of Education](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/index.html]Completing”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/index.html)</p>

7

<p>I would double check your input. There shouldnt be that big a range of EFC just from different calculators. Sometimes its easy to add an extra zero and not realize it. Good luck.<br>
Are you using a FAFSA forecaster or the net price calculator on a specific college website? The FAFSA EFC should pretty much be the same every time. The “net price” will depend on a specific schools financial aid policy</p>

8

<p>Isn’t the top EFC $99999? If so, how did the OP come up with $102K?</p>

9

<p>^ Good question.</p>

10

<p>Are you doing both FAFSA (federal) methodology and institutional methodologies? If so, then for IM you could get a high “family contribution.”</p>

<p>However, that range is really odd unless the lower amounts are for FM and the higher amount is for IM and uses more info or different calculations.</p>

<p>Check your numbers…and check to see if you’ve accidentally put adult income/assets as the student’s income/assets somewhere.</p>