The FAFSA emailed me saying my EFC is 052728, and from what I’m reading online now, it sounds like we’re going to be expected to pay roughly that amount minus the 0 in front? I’m so confused and really freaking out because there is no way we could ever, ever afford anything near $52,728 a year. When it asked how much we thought we could afford to pay, we figured out our absolute max, and that’s spending all of my personal savings, would be $23,000 a year. Where on earth did they get this massive number? It’s more than half of my family’s yearly income! This info has already been sent out to my colleges, and we thought we filled everything in okay - my parents even consulted their tax guy on a few questions just to be sure. Is it really the number without the zero in front? Because this seems absolutely ridiculous. Some people are saying it’s just a code for something too, but the code has a strong relation to how much you get? There’s a lot of conflicting information out there and I’m really confused and freaked out.
Do your parents have a lot of money in the bank? Do they own any real estate other than your house? Do they own rental properties, or other land?
Are you sure you didn’t put IRA and TSA accoint balances in your bank account section?
Are you sure your parent income was listed in the parent section, and NOT in the student section? Any chance this got listed twice?
Any chance you added a zero someplace…$10000 instead of $1000
Print out your FAFSA…and look line by line.
No one can answer your question, @starsforeyes, without more information on all income and assets.
There might have been some mistakes.
Be aware though, for most schools the FAFSA EFC is used for qualifying you for a Pell grant ($5000) and possibly a subsidized loan and an FSEOG grant ($4000~ max) occasionally at participating schools. If your EFC is $20000 or so, you wouldn’t qualify for most of those anyway.
I definitely recommend going through the FAFSA to again as thumper1 recommends to look for misclassifications or typos, but it’s important to note that even if it does turn out that your EFC is only half as much chances are you won’t get a lot of financial aid any way. Most schools don’t meet even their own estimates of your financial need and a lot of the ones that do require additional CSS Profile.
THis may be part of the problem…
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$52,728 a year. When it asked how much we thought we could afford to pay, we figured out our absolute max, and that’s spending all of my personal savings, would be $23,000 a year. Where on earth did they get this massive number?
It’s more than half of my family’s yearly income!
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You, the student, have $23k in savings, that alone is going to increase your EFC by (I think) $5k.
And, how much did YOU earn last year? That may also be increasing EFC.
I suspect that if you, the student, have $23k in savings, then your parents likely have a LOT more in savings/investments. If that’s the case, then THAT is also increasing EFC.
Did your parents put money into a retirement acct this last year?
Do your parents own any real estate other than their home?
FAFSA efc is mostly used for Federal aid. You won’t get a Pell Grant is what it means. What any one college will cost depends on the tuition and fees at the college and if they give any aid, your income and assets. To see an estimate of what a school might cost you (apart from the stated tuition etc) run the Net Price Calculator on the school’s website.
Many times fafsa efc is around 30 pct of income, but you are saying it is more like 50 pct, so that means you have a lot of assets.
parental assets (savings not in retirement, investments, property other than home) 5.64 pct, after a certain protection
student assets : 20 pct, no protection amount
If you want to go to an inexpensive college you don’t have to pay any more than you budget. There are state schools that don’t cost that much, you can commute from home. If you want to go to an expensive college at your parents income bracket it is expected that there are years of savings, current income and loans taken unless you managed to save the full price. You can also look for colleges with merit aid. Open the thread pinned at the top of the page.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html