Trying to understand the EFC

Everything I read on here about EFC calculations, and everywhere else too, doesn’t add up with what I’m seeing in my prospective kid’s offer of financial aid at Vassar. Here’s the scoop.

SAR for 2019-20 (2017 income) shows an EFC for my ONE kid in school of $31,251.
SAR for both kids in school for 2020-2021 - one shows $26318, the other shows $25421. Total for both kids is $51,379!! How is that a “split” EFC?

My income went down slightly in 2018, which is what I’m assuming they’re using to calculate the amount; it’s almost 50% of our AGI for 2018. The only other change is an additional bit of inheritance from a grandparent’s passing, but aren’t they supposed to use only 5% of assets? That $20,000 increase is far more than 5% of the additional assets.

So myth busted: the idea that the EFC is “split.” Not hardly. They reduced each a bit, and then multiplied by two. I checked with Vassar and they said yes, this is correct.

Myth number two : they only estimate 5% of assets. Not hardly.

There are no other changes - a bump in assets, and a decrease in income for 2018 but radically different EFC. More worrisome is that my 2019 income will be going up by 20%, so what will happen next year with only one in college? Of course the college won’t guarantee a darned thing. They made it sound like it won’t be that bad, but of course it will. She gave me an EFC estimate lower than having the two in college, even with the bump in pay, which makes no sense to me.

What makes all this even harder is that the second kid could go free to a state school that wants him for merit. Free, totally free.

If anyone can offer suggestions to make sense of any of this, please fill me in!

Did your income go down because you changed jobs? If so, did you roll over a 401k and fail to check the box on the FAFSA? That is a very common mistake and causes the amount rolled over to become income for the year (2018).

If the EFC was $31k for one, it should be about $15.5 for EACH student for the next year if there are no changes to income or assets. It IS 50% of the parent’s amount for each child (the $1k difference for your kids is most likely due to one of them having more assets than the other). If the inheritance was still in your accounts on FAFSA filing day, it would be considered an asset and assessed at 5.6%, so a $10k asset on FAFSA Day would raise the family EFC by $560, and that would be split in half for each child.

I think there is a mistake on one of your FAFSAs, either 2019 or 2020, and maybe due to a rollover of the 401k.

I think you must have missed something too. The EFC formula is pretty straightforward and you can calculate it all out by hand to verify. The only difference in your two kids EFC’s should be due to just differences in their personal income and assets.

Based on the limited information you have provided, either you 1) have made a mistake in completing one or more FAFSA forms somewhere along the line; or 2) you are conflating the FAFSA EFCs with the institutional EFCs calculated by the colleges.

Adding to post #3…that institutional EFC is calculated based on CSS Profile’s much more detailed/comprehensive info, which can result in a significantly different number as compared to FAFSA’s EFC.

Did you run Vassar’s NPC during the application process? If so, how does the fin aid package compare to that?

Who received the inheritance? If it went directly to your kids, they are expected to use it for school (no 5% asset cap for dependent students). If it went to the parent, did you report it as money received on the FAFSA?? And is that extra money in the bank still … could you possibly be getting double-hit for it? Another thought is that the asset protection allowance decreased this year compared to last.

Another thought: Was the inheritance an inherited IRA that you had to report on your 1040?

No, same employer. No rollovers.

Thanks for all the tips. I did go back and run the net price calculator on the college website, (thanks for that tip) and it just looks like we’re getting a really bad deal. The EFC is NOT split, but just slightly reduced for each kid from the previous year. I think that was the thing I kept reading about that confused me so much. If our EFC for one was $30,000, then for two each should be $15,000! Instead each was about $25,000. I misinterpreted what people were saying about that, I guess.

But Vassar just made the worst offer they could given the numbers. We got a much better deal from Union College. Maybe that’s the lack of merit aid at Vassar factoring in too.

Neither kid has any assets at all, nor much income, so not sure why the difference. All the inheritance and all other assets are in parent names. Unfortunately not an inherited IRA. I might have made a slight error in income (reporting it both as wages and business income) but the amount is small.

It is fair to ask Vassar financial aid staff why their institutional EFC calculation (which is based on your CSS Profile numbers/financial details, not FAFSA) is seemingly different from their NPC. From there they will go thru the details with you…perhaps there is some type of mistake…it’s certainly worth a conversation.

Good luck.

It does sound like you are operating under the misperception that a college’s institutionally derived EFC/Net Price should mimic what you are seeing for each student on the FAFSA SAR.

We focused on instate public universities where they could get merit and a state grant.

Private school NPC was affordable with two in college but not with one.

At least you know now and can plan accordingly.

It IS split, but there’s no 50-50 rule.

No, you don’t take the first kid’s family contribution for one year at one college with its policies/formula, and expect the next year’s FC for two to total that. Haven’t we always said it won’t come out 50-50, more like 60-60? Plus, eg, tuition or fee hikes, etc.

Yes, a 20k jump still seems high. Do check how you reported the inheritance. If 20k is more than 5% (but it’s really 5.6%, as said,) I guess the inheritance was no negligable amount. If whatever amount was misreported as kid assets or the college made an error, a child asset is assessed at 20%.

Can you tell the amount inherited? If 100k, sure, 20k is more than 5%. But it could be the student 20%. (20k. Just an example.)

Call the college and walk through it with them.

How much are you actually paying for older kid though? That kid has merit aid, right? And you have your own business?

there does seem to be something wacky about this year’s FAFSA calculations (far beyond the asset protection change). Or something wacky about how numbers are retrieved and populated into FAFSA.

Too many people are reporting that their EFC last year with one child in college is X, and this year with 2 in college, it’s still X or close to it for EACH child. They’ve reviewed their FAFSAs, have indicated 2 in college, their kids don’t have income/assets, and there were no rollovers or income changes.

Sure we’ve seen some reports and errors have been found (parents’ income in child’s section, etc), but there have been too many reports of seemingly correct FAFSAs coming back with EFCs that didn’t go down at all with a 2nd child in college.

Vassar and Union are both Profile schools IIRC. That being the case…each EFC would be about 60% of what your EFC would be for one kid…for institutional need based aid.

Re: the FAFSA. I think you need to print out each FAFSA form, and check line by line. Something doesn’t sound right if you have decreased income and no increase in assets from the previous year. Check every single line. Make sure assets are listed only under parent for parent assets. Make sure there isn’t a misplaced decimal point or added zero. Check each item.

We don’t have a business, but we report business income because my husband is a freelance writer. He makes about $10,000 a year! The college told me that the inheritance is a huge part of the high family contribution they expect. It was $200,000 and they consider it all to be available to pay for my kid’s education. All of it. They want it and that’s factoring into the offer.

So again, a myth that parent assets (yes they are under parents) are taken at 5%; this one will be taken at 100%. So much for my ability to ever retire!

I’ve gone through every line of the FAFSA and what we submitted to the CSS profile; most of the lines are imported from the IRS so we can’t see it, and of course we don’t get to see the final report. What I can see looks accurate.

I’d really like to see colleges and medical businesses have to post actual prices. That’s a dream that will never come true, but I feel like I’m being ripped off, especially after seeing so many comments here from people who make 50% more than me and get better offers than we got. It’s just gonna bite every time I pay the bill. C’est la vie.

Wait. There was a 200K inheritance between the two years?? Well, there’s a pretty good chunk of your 20K difference in total EFC.

LOL, why is the 200K a byline only eeked out later in this thread? , a “bit of inheritance”.

The relevant EFC is the school’s number, not FAFSA’s 5% of that 200K. Do you have any FAFSA only schools?

Schools that use CSS PROFILE calculate their own Expected Contributions. They can count things as income the FAFSA will not, include assets that FAFSA will not (primary home value a common thing—FAFSA does not ask, many PROFILE schools use)

Usually, if there are no extra situations, home business, Non custodial parent, primary home , are some but not all such “extras”, the institutional Expected Contribution for each student, if there are two going to college at the same time , would be 60% of what it would be for one. So, unlike The FAFSA EFC, it is not cut in half for each student.

Profile schools can assess asset amounts at any %age they choose. If this $200,000 is sitting in a parent account, then it’s fair game for an assessment by the school. Even 5% would be $10,000…but like I said…Profile schools can assess your assets anyway they choose to.

The other factor is any deductions your husband might take as. Freelance writer. Many colleges add some of these back in as income. Most common are deductions for space in your house which you would have anyway, things like cell phones, computers, and the like. Meals, travel expenses…much of this is added back in as income at some colleges.

Are you positive you checked two kids in college for next year?