So I have one daughter in college only getting merit aid but we fill out FAFSA so she get the small student loans. I have a second daughter looking at some top colleges that don’t give merit so I’ve going on net price calculators. The FAFSA I filled out said our EFC is 129000 which seems ridiculous but we do have about 80K total in 529s for both kids I entered. When I do the Net price calculators we qualify for like 50K in grants or institutional aid at MIT and other top colleges. When D2 goes to school I am assuming D1s 529 will gone. They only overlap with both in college 1 year. I did net price calculators with 1 in and 2 in and the amount of aid looks pretty good both ways considering. How can my EFC be $129000 and we still qualify for this much aid. I can not figure out what the heck I am doing wrong or are these top colleges way more generous than the typical EFC from FAFSA.
Looks like you added a zero someplace…or misplaced a decimal point on the FAFSA. If your FAFSA EFC was $12,900, and you got $50,000 in aid at a meets full need school, that would add up correctly…right?
No my EFC was $129,000
I see that. What I’m saying…go line by line on your FAFSA form. Clearly, you entered something incorrectly there. Look at each entry. My guess is a misplaced decimal point.
If your EFC was really $129,000, you woild be ineligible for need based aid…everywhere.
Compare the entries on the net price calculator to the entries on your FAFSA.
Really…it looks like you might have entered something with the decimal point in the wrong spot…or added an extra zero by mistake…like $100000 instead of $10000.
What is your income? If your income is $100,000 and you have quite a few assets, your EFC could be $129k at a public school for D1. MIT (and other generous schools) could very well consider that $100k salary more heavily than the assets, plus if you have 2 in school, so they’d consider that. They could very well be estimating $50k in aid for a $75k COA.
If the EFC is really $129,000, this family would likely not be eligible for need based aid anywhere…even with two in college at the same time.
It sounds like the net price calculators are saying much more in aid than the FAFSA would indicate for both students.
That is why I think there is a mistake in data entry on the FAFSA.
I must of entered something wrong our income is 194,000.
80K of 529 contribute to only $4480 of EFC.
If your income is $200,000 or so…your total EFC for the family will be in the $50,000 to $60,000 a year range…as a guestimate based on income only. The $80,000 529 account will add less than $5000 to that total.
Or so…I am guesstimating!
So…figure when you have two on college, that will be divided in half for each.
BUT…if it’s a Profile,school it won’t be 50% each…it will be 60% each.
Is that your incime before or after taxes? My guestimate is assuming this is your gross income…before any taxes.
Yes before taxes. I’ll have to wait until Fafsa is processed to look and correct. Unfortunately I hit send before realizing there was a problem. Thanks last year EFC was around 50K and not much changed so I should have caught on to a problem. Thanks for the assistance!
It shouldn’t be a problem. People do make mistakes. Better to find it now.
My guestimate was pretty close!
Maybe she entered the 529 balances as the students’ assets instead of the parents’.
i figured it out- I added an extra digit to my non taxable income adding an extra $100K to bottom line. Yikes. Was able to correct thank goodness.
Thanks for letting us know! I was thinking that was what happened…that extra zero!
Glad you found it!