What is the most accurate EFC forcaster?

Paying for College
1

<p>The CollegeBoard EFC estimater gives me $3,914 and the FAFSA4caster's answer is $4,217. Is there a more detailed EFC calculator available? I have exact numbers for AGI, federal and state tax liability, savings, etc; but these two just use some sort of estimate based on state of residence, etc.</p>

2

<p><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;

3

<p>By the way, the FAFSA EFC is a misnomer, because that number is only an index for federal aid. There is no guarantee that the final cost of a school to a family will match one’s FAFSA EFC.</p>

4

<p>State taxes are always based on an allowance, not actual numbers. You can find your state’s allowance figures on table A1 of the formula guide in somemom’s link. IIRC, the only tax figure FAFSA asks for is federal income taxes.</p>

5

<p>Well it certainly isn’t the college board;s in our case, it gave us an estimated EFC of 49K and FAFSA made it less than half.</p>