<p>Even if your family can't really pay that amount? Does that mean you will get barely anything from financial aid or do conditions vary?</p>
<p>It means you should probably not expect much (ie, anything) from financial aid. Of course, every school’s calculation is a little different.</p>
<p>It means that you won’t get aid. Let’s put it this way: my family’s EFC was $40 and I was denied aid.</p>
<p>It means you can stop wasting time with those tedious fafsa/css crap</p>
<p>Penn calculates aid using its own internal EFC, which may be very different than the FAFSA EFC. In my experience it is usually lower, but it often remains the same or even goes higher.</p>
<p>On the aid application there is an area for explaining circumstances; try it and see what happens.</p>