<p>MY EFC is 03377, what does this mean?</p>
<p>If the number is correct, the EFC would be stating the expectation would be for you to cover 3337 dollars of the total cost of attendance. If you (or your child if you are a parent) goes to a “full need” school, then likely they would cover the rest with grants, scholarships, work study, and loans. Most schools do not cover the full cost, though. Other schools may expect less then what the EFC states. Best of luck!</p>
<p>mom 926 - for more information, you might want to check out the financial aid forum.</p>
<p>Fallgirl is right. Extensive thread on what EFC is are on that forum. But to summarize, EFC is only the number FAFSA generates as what that calculator calls your Expected FAmily Contribution. It does not give out any financial aid, it just generates that number which many think is a misnomer because what usually happens is that no schools will go with that number and give you aid up that figure. All it guarantees you is PELL funds, if low enough, and yours is low enough for some PELL money. Maximum PELL is about $5000+, so you can see how far that will go even with a zero EFC. It also qualifies you for Stafford loans, some of which can be subsidized (lower interest rate and no interest accumulating while in school) if the cost of your school justifies it.</p>
<p>The rest is up to the school as to what is given to you, and very few schools use FAFSA alone to give financial aid AND guarantee to meet need. Those schools that meet 100% of need tend to like to define need on their own terms and want more information and another application most of the time.</p>
<p>In other words, if the EFC number was 60,000 then that means you can cover the COA (cost of attendance) and you would not file for FAFSA because the COA or tuition, room and board including fees are lower than the EFC #.</p>
<p>I would completly disagree with the fact if ones EFC is = to the COA that one could cover the COA, and you would not want to file the FAFSA. Even though someones EFC is 60,000 they might not have looked into options to reduce this number utilizing tax, income or planing strategies. This has a lot of opportunity if the family had two students going to college and the combined COA was 100k Less the EFC of 60,000 shows a need of 40,000 should the family look into how to lower lets just say by 10,000 (60k to 50k EFC) and the colleges covered this differece with the average student going to college for 5 or more years thats up to a 100,000 savings. By not filing the FAFSA which could have provided some lower cost college loans which would allow other moneys to grow would also provide some additional value to the family controling cash flow.</p>
<p>Oh, you are correct. I should have been more specific. I was basing it on one student going to college in the fall of 2011 and using an average COA of $50K or lower. Also, one cannot change their tax strategies until the following year since it is too late especially if they are attending school in the fall of 2011. What I meant by tax strategies is for example, make sure you don’t have any money in the child’s name for it increases the EFC substantially. Yes, I agree you can try to move things around to lower the EFC. However, your income is a big part of the EFC calculation which you cannot change unless you quit! :)</p>
<p>What you should do is check finaid.org and learn as much as you can. Some schools also use the CSS Profile, which counts all assets short of official retirement funds. So, you could have a 3k EFC per Fafsa- and home equity, etc, could affect your final “need” determination, according to a college that utilized the Profile.
The “high EFC” families should check to see if schools which offer merit aid require any paperwork for these.</p>
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<p>If you have a computed EFC, then it’s too late to change tax strategies to improve your AGI for that year.</p>
<p>If your computed family contribution exceeds the cost of attendance at the schools to which you apply, you will not be eligible for need based aid. You would, however, be able to take out a Stafford loan of $5500 in the student’s name…by completing the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Remember too…the EFC computed on the FAFSA is used for the awarding of federally funded need based aid ONLY. If a school is giving you institutional funds (money from the school itself) it is NOT bound by the FAFSA EFC at all.</p>
<p>@SteveGK wrote “…By not filing the FAFSA which could have provided some lower cost college loans which would allow other moneys to grow would also provide some additional value to the family controling cash flow. …”</p>
<p>I challenge the so-called “lower cost college loans” - which one? last I’ve seen were loans that wanted 6+% and I don’t call them low rate.
BTW, folks also focus too much on income and forgot about asset which also weigh in heavily too.</p>
<p>Income drives the majority of EFC. Parent assets only contribute 5.6% of their value.</p>
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<p>5.6% for assets is for the FAFSA. For the Profile, the schools can set their own formula for asset allocation for financial aid purposes.</p>