Anyways, I kind of repeated what you said to a certain degree. It is institution dependent but the number to my understanding is important to them. Every counselor/ financial advisor we have spoken to has said the family’s EFC is divided among current children in college that year. That was my point I wanted to make sure the OP understood.
If there are any schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need based solely on FAFSA EFC, you can count them on one hand. So generally, the above statement is not correct. With few if any exceptions, schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need calculate their own EFC, independent of FAFSA, and use that figure to distribute institutional aid.
What part doesn’t sound right @ZHB1999 ?
Thumper is right, most schools do not meet need and so one should look at the FAFSA EFC as a minimum of what a family would be expected to come up with. And with those that do meet need, you shouldn’t look at the FAFSA EFC because most meet need’s schools use the CSS Profile and have their own calculations for the EFC. However, assuming in your example that the school in question meets 100% need AND has calculated a need of $20k (60-40 in your example), you are right they will meet that. However, they may meet it in grants, work-study and some loans.
Financial aid is far from being that simple.
Suppose that the cost of ATTENDANCE, not just tuition, is $60,000 and the family has an EFC (for meet full need schools, typically FAFSA and CSS Profile (or their own institutional form), not just FAFSA) of $40,000, you might see numbers that look like this:
$40,000 parental contribution
$5,500 student loan
$4000 student contribution
10,500 institutional aid
BUT, most schools do not meet 100% need. That additional 10,500 may not be offered at all.
Okay, thanks for clarifying. I do agree however with you. Our EFC is approximately 1/3rd of our income. No way in **ll we can afford that. We have 3 other kids at home!
Don’t think of it as a “family’s EFC;” there is an EFC that belongs to each individual student. Add them all up, and you get what the total family contribution for college expenses for the academic year is expected to be (although for FAFSA EFCs the numbers really only have relevance for Pell grants and other federal aid). And yes, the more college students there are in the family, the lower you can expect each student’s EFC to be.
@zbh1999 Welcome to the world of paying for college. We have 8 kids. 3 are adults, one is a college jr, one is a high school sr, and 3 are between 1st and 9th grades. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. Our EFC is way more than we can afford. Colleges only look at the single yr snapshot. Our EFC for our kids when combined is almost a decade worth of annual income. Not even close to being realisitc.
We are a seek merit aid family. As parents on the 2017 parents thread refer to it, applying to big MACs (merit aid colleges). Our kids can attend big MAC colleges far cheaper than “generous” meet needs schools b/c of our inability to pay our EFC. Our family is far from being alone.
Yikes! Yes, we are already a seek merit aid (and public in state scchools) family. I was just pointing out how unrealistic that number is.
just looked up how many colleges meet full needs. USnews says 65. Is that right? that’s not many out of the 3000+ colleges out there!
our son’s EFC was 32K as a freshman. when he was a sophomore it was 17; and our Daughter’s was 16K. So, yes it’s about half; but each kid had his/her own EFC. It was a shock when we first entered this college financial arena; and found out what EFCs were and how much college cost and how most schools do not fill the gap between the EFC and the cost of attendance. But we’re getting through it now. Neither are at meets-needs schools.
There is only ONE college that guarantees to meet full need based on the data provided on the fafsa…plus a small form of their own…and that is University of Chicago.
There are NO NONE colleges that guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students that use ONLY the fafsa data. NONE. Not one.
@thumper1 -One notable exception. Our D attends Scripps and has a JES Scholarship. A (unadvertised) bonus for the scholarship has been that our EFC was determined by the FAFSA only. This has saved us thousands over the CSS EFC. (But yes not for ALL accepted students).
Yes, most meets full need schools use more than just the FAFSA to determine need. However, there are families (non-divorced, renters, lower income) where the Profile EFC is less than the FAFSA. Even when the Profile is a higher number, the increase in EFC for nonhomeowners is generally smaller than what others see.
The Profile also has a section for special circumstances, which allows families who have good advisors to start working on their appeals for professional judgment and a reduced EFC.
Many fafsa only colleges had some kind of full ride scholarship. Many. But as you note…it’s not for all.
@AroundHere if a family really wants to do a special circumstances consideration…they should contact the college about it. They should NOT rely on that little extra section of the Profile to get that cog turning…because in most cases…it won’t. The family needs to know exactly what documentation the colleges want to verify their special circumstance. Not just a statement that they have one.
@thumper1 Quick Google search and found this article.
Just b/c the article only mentions FAFSA does not mean that the schools only require FAFSA. Check the schools’ websites. They are going to require the CSS Profile.
From the linked article, which concerns colleges that meet 100% of demonstrated need:
The amount given in financial need is usually decided by the information that a family provides on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
This is wrong. Change “Free Application for Federal Student Aid” to “CSS/Financial Aid Profile” and it’s no longer wrong.
@ZHB1999 that list is comprised mostly of schools that use the fafsa AND the Profile. The exceptions are Princeton which has its own form much like the Profile. And University of Chicago which has a very short form.
And there are schools on that list that no longer meet full need for everyone…Walla Walla is one.
That list of 66 schools is a drop in the bucket in the 3000 or so colleges in this country. The VAST VAST majority do NOT meet full need for all. And the vast vast majority that DO meet full need use the Profile in addition to the fafsa.
@thumper1 -you misunderstood. Scripps is meets full 100% need and for most students use the CSS Profile. However, for a select few (like my D) they use FAFSA only to meet need. The difference got us significantly more aid. (The scholarship was not full ride but we got more aid because of the use of the FAFSA EFC).
Thanks @thumper1 for clarifying. Is there a disadvantage to the fact that they may require the CSS as well? I know we filed the profile too, no big deal. I say go where the money is even if it is a little extra effort. Important to do your due diligence if you want to save $$.
The disadvantage is Profile numbers tend to result in higher EFC’s. It differs by school since they differ in ability to meet everyone’s need ( i.e. their endowments differ).