<p>I filled out my FAFSA today and my EFC is 80,963. Why is it so ridiculously high? My Adjusted Gross Income is $108,238 dollars and the Income Earned From Work is $73,998 dollars. If I paid my tuition and board in full it would $61,470 dollars. I would struggle to pay that by itself and, of course, the doesn't include food, transportation, books. . . etc.
Can someone explain this to me?
Thanks a ton.</p>
<p>You goofed somewhere…or you have VERY high assets. It sounds like your either double entered income, or added a zero somewhere it didn’t belong. Parent income only goes in the parent income spot. Student income only goes in the student spot. You do NOT list the balances in 401k or any other IRA or TSA as an asset on the forms.</p>
<p>Also…check the dependency questions…you should be,answering NO to all of them…some student answer yes to the question regarding being in guardianship. You are likely not in guardianship.</p>
<p>When are you going to college? If its fall 2014, your FAFSA won’t be available until January 1, 2014. What exactly are you filling out to determine your EFC? You should be completing the Net Price Calculators on the college websites at this point. Keep in mind that if your parents are self employed, they will not be accurate.</p>
<p>In 2011, you indicated that your parents could afford $38,000 to hire Michelle Hernandez…which would imply a much higher income. I sure hope you didn’t do that!</p>
<p>I’m the student. I have no income, the income I’m talking about is my parent’s income. Our assets are high, you’re right. They’re around $991,000 dollars, but most of that money is invested into stocks, it’s not money we can take out and use as far as I understand. The FAFSA was filled out by tranfering the tax informationg from the IRS website directly into the FAFSA, so I don’t think there’s a mistake there. But what would I do if there was? How do I fix it after I’ve submitted it?
I’ll (hopefully) be attending NYU this fall, but even if I don’t get in all the other schools fall around the same tuition amount. & what do you mean my FAFSA won’t be available until January 1, 2014? I don’t understand.
Thank you!</p>
<p>The FAFSA for the 2014-2015 school year does NOT become available for completion and submission until January 1, 2014.</p>
<p>If you completed the FAFSA that is currently available, you did the 2013-2014 FAFSA, which is for the CURRENT academic year…NOT for students entering college in the fall of 2014. You will have to complete the correct one and submit it after January 1. </p>
<p>You have almost $1 million in assets. And yes, there is always the option of selling those assets. You will NOT receive need based aid so that your family can hold onto significant stock assets. Sorry…that is NOT what need based aid is for. Your family has the choice to sell off some of those stocks and support your college education. </p>
<p>$1 million or so in assets very much explains why your EFC is so high. Your assets alone would generate about $55,000 a year on your EFC. Your AGI of $80k or so would generate an additional $20k-$30k added to that.</p>
<p>FYI…NYU is notoriously poor in terms of need based aid. It also requires the CSS Profile which will look even MORE in depth at your income and assets. NYU does NOT guuarantee to meet full need anyway…so even IF you were eligible for need based aid…there is no guarantee you would get anything more than a $5500 Direct Loan.</p>
<p>Do any of your other colleges require the Profile? Bet they do…I would suggest you check.</p>
<p>If you are applying to other schools that cost $60,000 a year, and your family cannot pay that bill, you need to consider adding some affordable options to your application list.</p>
<p>Every college has a net price calculator on their website. I would strongly suggest you do THIS with each college on your application list. </p>
<p>In addition, if finances are a consideration, you might want to look at the stickie threads on this forum that discuss GUARANTEED MERIT aid to see if you qualify for any of those.</p>
<p>Yes! my dad is self employed. Maybe that’s it.</p>
<p>I didn’t hire Michelle Hernandez (haha).</p>
<p>And what calculated my EFC is the actualy FAFSA. NYU requires my CSS and my FAFSA to be done by November 15th since I applied ED.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure if money is just investments (as opposed to qualified retirement plans) then a certain percentage is considered available for your parents to use…while your parents may prefer not to touch that money and they may consider it retirement savings (we have investments like this), as far as FAFSA is concerned you can use it for school. And you can pretty much sell stocks anytime…it’s a pretty liquid assets although you do get into issues with gains/losses etc.</p>
<p>Oh wow. Okay. You just answered a million questions. Thanks a ton.</p>
<p>OP, please have financial safeties. Please read what the ED would mean- it is a binding agreement.</p>
<p>Another poster has described the federal methodology EFC calculation [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16561498-post466.html]here[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16561498-post466.html]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Yes, the high assets add a considerable amount of money to the federal methodology EFC.</p>
<p>Okay guys, I looked into the dates of the FAFSA and you’re right, I submitted it for the wrong year. Thank you for pointing that out to me.</p>
<p>I’m applying to a total of six colleges, three out of state and three instate. The three instate include my safeties and also have tuitions my parents can cover with no problem. So I do have safeties, thank you for the advice anyway!</p>
<p>I did read the ED contract with NYU and understand it fully. The only reason I can “break” the contract is for financial reasons. Hopefully that won’t happen.</p>
<p>Lastly, thank you for the link to the EFC calculator and for explaining to me the asset part of the financial aid.</p>
<p>Are you expecting need based financial aid from NYU? With your income, assets, and self employed parent, it is HIGHLY unlikely based on the info here that you will get need based aid other than a $5500 Direct Loan. You can decline an ED acceptance IF your financial aid is not sufficient…but they will most certainly meet your need…you HAVE NO NEED. you won’t be,able to say they didn’t meet your financial need…because your calculated family constitution is well above their cost of attendance.</p>
<p>NO, NYU isn’t going to tie you to a pole and force you to attend. But really…what are you expecting from them? </p>
<p>Another thing to remember with NYU is that for students eligible for need based aid, they also consider academic achievement. In other words, they do preferential need based packaging, giving awards to top students.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you applied ED to NYU. Did you run their net price calculator? Just your assets would generate a family contribution that exceeds the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>
Why not? Are they in the retirement accounts?</p>
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</p>
<p>It is pretty easy to sell a stock. The only way this would be a problem that I can think of is if they are invested as part of a retirement account, which has some restrictions on what can be withdrawn (you pay a penalty if you take it out). But if they are just stock market investments, colleges will consider those fair game to pay tuition. Why should someone else pay your tuition if your family has that amount of assets? Every bit of financial aid you get comes out of someone else’s pocket – people who pay full tuition, people who make donations to the university or scholarship fund, or people who pay taxes that may subsidize federal student loans.</p>
<p>If you net price calculator run for NYU shows you will not get FA and you do not get any (or do not apply because you know you won’t get any anyway), that is not a sufficient reason to turn down an ED acceptance. If you aren’t willing to pay what the net price calculator shows, don’t apply ED anyplace.</p>
<p>Read posts 11-13. You will get NO FA from NYU. You wil be expected to pay $60K+/year. Are you parents prepared to pay that? If not, decline.</p>
<p>Actually, why not just move your NYU application to regular decision? At least that way, you will be able to at least compare what, if anything, NYU gives you to your other options.</p>
<p>That’s why I brought up the ED contract on post #8. I don’t know what NYU’s ED contract claims but when my S applied ED to his school we had to sign off as well as the GC at his school stating that we understood it was binding. So not to be taken casually. But we knew that he would get no financial aid at the school and had discussed a plan to make it happen if he got accepted. With OP’s family assets, I do not see financial aid being offered either.
He already says that full pay would be a struggle. Please talk to your parents now about the feasibility of attending with no aid.</p>
<p>Please note also that the OP used the adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>The AGI is what you are supposed to put on FAFSA.</p>