Hi, all -
Looking at our daughter’s SAR, I find the following:
“Based on the information we have on record for you, your EFC is 058043. You are not eligible for a Federal Pell Grant but you may be eligible for other aid.”
Is this number meant to suggest what our Expected Family Contribution would be in a given year? Over a period of of years? I’m puzzled in part because the number appears without notation for currency.
Thanks!
Yes, that is yearly. $58K.
Wow. Thanks for responding. I’m sure we are not the only ones shocked by our EFC. Pretty astounding, actually, given what percentage of our income that number represents, the number of kids we have, etc. Interesting also to think of how widely the cost of living varies from region to region - we are in a part of the country where COL is quite high - obviously, EFC calculations can’t consider this, but in terms of real life decisions about what is affordable, the impact of this is significant. Sigh…
The FAFSA EFC is just a number that qualifies you (or not) for federal Pell grant, SEOG grant, federal work study, and some state grant programs, depending on how high it is.
The FAFSA takes into account household size, number of students in college, age of older parent, taxes paid.
Also parent assets, and possibly student income/assets.
The primary driver of FAFSA EFC is income, then assets not in qualified retirement accounts.
When you look at how much you have to pay for a college, look at published tuition, fee, room and board rates. Then subtract any merit or need based aid a college offers.
For awarding institutional aid, the college will probably require more detailed financial information, for example the CSS profile, and might include home equity in the calculation.
To get an idea what the net price of a college might be for you, every college website is supposed to have a net price calculator.
Bottom line, if your EFC is almost $60,000 you will probably be full pay at most schools that don’t offer merit.
Thanks, that is a really helpful explanation!
Back to add that part of what puzzles me further is that when I go to the net price calculator for some of her schools, it doesn’t seem to align with the EFC number.
It’s fairly common for the FAFSA EFC not to align with the net price calculator (NPC) results, because institutions vary widely in the financial resources they have at their disposal.
I would also caution you that the actual financial aid packages can deviate a lot from the NPC results, because the CSS profile asks some very different questions than the NPC.
we are a family of 6; our EFC is about 25% of our income. Others have said their EFC is around 30%. Is yours in that range at all? We too were shocked at it all; that’s why i’ve started reading CC and learning so much. This forum features many threads about EFCs; look around and read some past threads. here’s some links; please note that some threads get off track!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1949341-what-is-the-point-of-efc-if-the-family-cannot-meet-it.html#latest
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1955729-efc-012883-what-does-this-mean-for-my-child.html#latest
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1955517-how-does-fafsa-calculate-efc.html#latest
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1948587-huge-differences-between-fafsa-efc-and-individual-college-net-price-calculator-efc-numbers-p1.html
Good to know, @NUwildcat92 - I guess we will have to just wait and see what happens.
Yes, @bgbg4us - EFC is not far from percentage you describe. I will definitely look further to the links you posted! Thanks very much for responding.
Also the EFC is the minimum you will pay since most schools gap. Since many private schools have a COA above your EFC you could end up paying even more.
If you are looking at net price calculators from HYPSM or the like…you might just see some need based aid. These schools have very big endowments and extremely generous need based aid.
If you are looking at schools that include MERIT aid questions (like SAT score and GPA) in their net price calculators, you might be seeing merit aid included in your net price calculations…which are NOT reflected in the FAFSA EFC.
And lastly, if you are self employed, or divorced, or own real estate other than your primary residence…the NPC won’t likely be accurate unless it specifically ASKS those types of questions.
Thanks, noname87. Private schools will likely not be part of our mix here - though she has received merit aid enough to bring them close to cost of instate flagship, we aren’t as drawn to them now as we once were. Choice will likely be between our instate and another state school.
Do run the Net Price Calculators on various school’s web sites. The OOS school NPCs should ask if you are a state resident and then calculate any potential merit aid and OOS costs. Be aware that if the schools use the CSS Profile that your results may be inaccurate if you are divorced or own a business.
Just be aware that most OOS public schools give very litttle need based aid to OOS students. In your case, with a that high of a FAFSA EFC, you will be full pay. Merit aid however varies. Some state schools do have merit aid for OOS student with high stats.
Right, we understand that we will not qualify for need based aid. Hoping there might be a bit of merit aid forthcoming for the OOS school. If that doesn’t happen, we have a strong option in our instate school. I really appreciate how generous everyone has been in offering their advice. We are more fortunate than many families who are trying to sort this out - I am keeping this in mind, even if our kid will likely have some short term disappointment if her first choice school doesn’t turn out to be affordable for our family. First world problems, for sure.
Family size matters a little, but until you have 2 in college at the same time it doesn’t change the EFC by very much. Look for merit.