What if my family's EFC is 0?

Paying for College
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<p>What does that mean exactly? My family can't contribute anything, but since I'm not ivy material, I'm sure that doesn't mean I get any kind of full ride or anything. My dad didn't know a lot of our financial info, but it still seems as if our EFC is 0. I live with one parent who has his own business. My mom who I don't live with hasn't had a job in my lifetime. My dad makes only around $50,000 a year apparently and there are 3 to 5 of us living here (I don't really know if my dad's girlfriend and her kid count or not). I want to go to a good college but I don't want like $80,000 of debt under my name. My mom thinks that it would be under my dad's name until I'm 25 and not dependent anymore, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that.</p>

<p>Also, this is completely unrelated, but my great grandpa received the medal of honor in the army, which is the highest honor you can get. Does this get me any scholarship opportunities, or is the relation too distant?</p>

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<p>You most likely will not have a “0” EFC as business expenses are added back into the FAFSA. This will raise your EFC. If your dad’s girlfriend is contributing to the running of the household, it should be added to the fafsa as monies paid on your behalf.</p>

<p>Your mom is right that you will not be considered an independent student until you are 24. Is there a reason that you do not live with your mom?</p>

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<p>I agree with sybbie that it’s unlikely that your EFC will be 0 based on the info you’ve given. You should probably run the numbers through one of the EFC estimators. Your dad will have to determine what the value of assets, etc. are in order to get an accurate picture.</p>

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<p>Not sure about this one…the gf probably isn’t giving the OP cash support or paying any bills that are in the student’s name so her income should not be a factor afaik. Her contribution to the father’s household expenses isn’t considered for FAFSA. Is this the FAFSA instruction you’re referring to?</p>

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<p>@sybbie719 I don’t live with my mom because my parents are legally separated and my dad is the lesser of two evils. My mom is an alcoholic and not fit to be a parent these days.</p>

<p>@sk8ermom I tried EFC calculators. My dad gave me the numbers he knew, but he didn’t know a lot. His business is not worth much though. I’m pretty sure he actually loses money on it sometimes. And yes, my dad’s girlfriend’s income has no affect on me.</p>

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<p>Unless your dad has more than 100 employees, he wouldn’t report any business value. He will just plug in the numbers from his tax return. His business income will most likely be reduced by his expenses, so it may not be as high as you think. The best way to figure out what your EFC might be is to take your dad’s 2010 tax return (federal 1040) and plug the numbers into an EFC calculator. Pay attention to the directions, because they do tell you exactly what line # on the tax return to input.</p>

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<p>If your EFC really is 0, aim for schools that meet full need. They’re not all Ivies, though most of them are fairly high tier.</p>

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<p>Oh, he only has a few employees, so that’s good to know. I’ll try to bother him to find the info on his taxes and such because he just tells me he doesn’t know no matter how much I ask him.</p>

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<p>Here is the FAFSA formula for 2012-2013. Print it out, and then sit down with your dad and work your way through it. That way you will have a more accurate estimate, and he will know which parts of his taxes need to be taken care of early in 2012 so that you can file the FAFSA. <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;