I’ve filled out the FAFSA as well as College Board’s EFC calculator multiple times. My family’s income is $125,000 (as well as $20,000 liquid cash; $9,000 in investments; $87,000 debt on a house with a predicted market value of $200,000) and I have one sibling in college and another pre-college. My parents aren’t paying any tuition for my sibling. Anyway, my EFC came out to be $10,770 which I originally thought was reasonable, but after reading multiple discussions on financial aid now seems to be ridiculously low. Others have stated that a family with an income of $100,000 would generally expect to have an EFC of $30,000. If that’s the case, I won’t be able to apply to any of the colleges I’ve been intending on applying to because they will all be way outside of my ability to pay.
My parents are contributing nothing to my tuition, which means that despite having an EFC in the tens of thousands, I will have no help in paying. I will not take out any loans besides federal loans. I can’t imagine what I could’ve entered incorrectly, because I got all of my information either directly off of their tax forms or from their mouths. I know it’s not due to typos either. Am I missing something?
However, note that FAFSA EFC will be renamed SAI and the calculation will change.
Also note that many colleges (particularly the ones with better financial aid) use their own calculations rather than just using the FAFSA EFC or SAI as the basis of their offers. And many which do use FAFSA EFC or SAI do not cover the gap between their list prices and the FAFSA EFC or SAI.
That said, if you parents’ actual contribution is $0 but need-based financial aid will not cover nearly all of the costs (which is likely the case regardless of the above – check the net price calculators on the web sites of the colleges of interest), then you need to look for large merit scholarships to be able to afford college. The other option is that if your parents will subsidize you living at home, commuting to a local college that has very low tuition (e.g. in-state publics in some states, or starting first at a community college and then transferring to a nearby in-state public) or where you get a merit scholarship that covers most of tuition may be possible.
As @ucbalumnus has indicated, go to the Net Price Calculators (NPC) on the desired school’s web sites to get an actual picture of what you may be paying at a specific university.
In the past, the EFC (expected family contribution) was a “base” at which to start estimating your minimal cost. The SAI (Student Aid index) will look at your resources. There will be a separate Pell grant eligibility guide.
I am not sure where you are calculating an EFC…I don’t know of any calculators that are updated for the new SAI (what EFC will now be called) formula. One big difference is that FAFSA won’t split the EFC between multiple kids in college anymore, each student/sibling will be allocated 100% of the SAI…so that might partially explain why your EFC seems low. CSS Profile schools may not make this adjustment (if you are planning on applying to any schools that require CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA.
It sounds like you may have entered something incorrectly. Please check all of your entries for accuracy even though you think everything was accurate. Where were you entering this info anyway?
As noted by @Mwfan1921 if you are using some formula, it’s not the one for the 2024-2025 academic year as that hasn’t been released yet as far as I know.
You could try a net price calculator and see if that comes close, but also keep in mind that this probably should be viewed with caution as these haven’t been updated either.
And biggest takeaway…IF you are using an old EFC formula, please keep in mind that having more than one sibling in college when you are will NOT be considered in the new SAI formula. So as noted…without that, your SAI seems like it will be at least $21,000, not $10,700.
And if you are applying to colleges that use the CSS Profile, all bets are off. No one knows what they will be doing with the multiple siblings in college, and also, some of those schools include primary home equity in some way…which the FAFSA does not do. Actually the Profile takes a much deeper dive into your financials.
When our oldest started college, that was our household income, we received 0 financial aid. As income increased, so did our college students, so even with 3 in at once we received 0 FA. Top income was $200,000, 0 financial aid with 3. Right now we have about $100,000 in the bank for a kitchen remodel but even when that disappears I don’t expect anything. It seems that half of our income should go towards college tuition. College choices were definitely limited by this.
@Mjkacmom makes a good point. Your EFC soon to be SAI really has zero relationship to the amount of need based aid you will receive from a college. Keep in mind that the very vast majority of colleges do not guarantee to meet your full need, and they don’t.
I suspect you will need to rethink your college list.
We don’t know about your stats at all, but if you have a high GPA and good test scores, there are some well known college and universities where you might be able to get full tuition, or maybe even a full ride.
The community college transfer route is tried and tested. It’s obviously a lot more affordable.
If you would like help to create a new list, I suggest starting a new thread in the Search and Selection forum. State financial limitations, statistics, interests, and anything else that’s relevant.
Try this SAI calculator and see what you get. It is updated for the new formula (which isn’t final yet!). I just found this resource so haven’t fully vetted it.
FWIW, I tried the calculator linked above a month or two ago using my 2022 taxes and my daughter’s financial information. At the same time, I worked my tedious way through the March paper draft posted here on the government site using the same data. Both the college money method calculator and the paper draft gave me the same SAI, which I thought was pretty amazing given I wasn’t always sure that I was filling out the paper form correctly. I know that it is likely the final FAFSA will be different from the March draft, but based on my experience, the calculator matches the original draft at least. On the other hand, my finances are super simple.
I’m not using any formula, I filled out the FAFSA (I know that this won’t be the same when I fill it out for this year) and then I filled out the NPCs for several colleges. I’ve only looked at colleges which cover 100% of demonstrated financial need. I have checked and re-checked the information I’ve entered multiple times and my COA for every college I’ve filled out the NPC for has been between $14,000 and $22,000 with most being around $17,000. Like I said, I pulled the information directly from my parents’ 2022 tax forms so I know that it’s accurate.
I have the option to go to a local CC for free, but I’m concerned about transferring credits. In Illinois (where I live), it’s required that all credits transfer to all in state public universities, but the cost of tuition at most universities here are ridiculously high and without much in the way of scholarships (except for UIS, which I just looked at recently and it seems like they might be a lot better than UIUC, for example). If the NPCs I’ve filled out were accurate and my COA would be around $14,000 to $17,000 a year, I could cover that by working and federal student loans. I already work full time and so have some money saved up. My annual income will be over or about $12,000 this year since I can only work full time during the summer.
Thanks for the response. I know I wasn’t very specific in my original post, it was a bit rushed. I’m a rising senior. My current UW GPA is 3.8 and W 4.1, and my SAT score was 1470 (780 EBRW, 690 Math) though I may be retaking it in the fall. I mentioned in another response, that while I have a good CC option I’ve not heard good things about transferring credits to other universities. I’d be able to transfer them to in state universities, but my options in IL are expensive. I will definitely check out what you’ve linked.
University of Chicago uses the FAFSA and a short college financial aid form to determine the awarding of institutional need based aid. Princeton uses their own financial aid form and the FAFSA. The rest of the colleges that meet full need use the CSS Profile which delves much deeper into your finances.
This is probably why the NPCs and the FAFSA EFC do NOT look similar. There is info on the Profile that will be used to compute your need based aid.
Are your parents divorced? Do they own a business or are they self employed? Do they own real estate other than your primary residence? Any international income? If YES to any of these, the NPCs are likely to give not great results…unless the specific school NPC asks questions relating to these things.
Oh…and your parent assets are not on the tax returns. Did you include accurate numbers for those things on the NPCs? Same with home equity…
Also, there are large changes happening to the FAFSA this year so you are very right…any future FAFSA results will be different. Most notable is that multiple siblings in college at the same time will no longer divide the SAI (EFC).
Yeah, I know that a lot of the higher tier colleges use their own method of calculating financial aid. But my EFC and calculated COA for these colleges don’t actually look that different. The number the FAFSA spat out was $10,000, and the number I’ve been getting from 100% financial need covered colleges has only been 1.5 to 2 times that number.
To answer your questions: My parents are married. Neither own a business or are self-employed. No, they only own our house. They aren’t international income.
The numbers I got for their assets came from them. I’m certain about the amount of cash they have in savings, because my parents pulled up their bank info in front of me. They only have stocks in one company and that’s where the $9,000 in investments came from. The only thing in regard to their assets is how much they owe on our house, because I haven’t actually seen the number, it was just given to me.
The SAI not factoring in multiple siblings will probably be the killer for me here. Even if my EFC were accurate for myself, the SAI not factoring in siblings would most definitely bring the price up too much.
Anyway, I don’t know if any of this response will give you any new perspective on my situation. I’m just as confused as everyone else in this thread. Thank you for your help though.
Your biggest issue is the lack of parent contribution.
Some schools like Rice will provide free tuition with your $125k salary. But that still leads a hefty amount.
I’m sure a CC is your best bet. I promise you if UIUC is taking classes, so will out of state schools. You work with the cc advisor. Don’t make assumptions. Btw you’d likely end up at a state school anyway given your parents unwillingness to help.
I’d hate for you to take loans and work and it’s still be tough.
A few schools offer full rides like SMU, W&L, Seattle and more but it’s unrealistic to assume they are possible.
Go visit the cc and talk to a counselor about transferring credits. I’m sure if you take the right classes it’ll be fine.
Yeah, my parents unwillingness to help is a bit frustrating. I don’t think people should expect their parents to fund them completely, but I’ve had zero help from them besides financial information – that is to say, I’ve had no advice from anyone on how I’m supposed to navigate any of this.
I’ll look into universities that have good merit aid. I am steadfast in that I won’t take out private loans for college, which is why I don’t want to go to CC for free and then end up with limited options for transferring that meet my financial restrictions.
I’ll take you recommendation and reach out about transfer credits. Again, thanks for the advice.