<p>Yale determines an EFC just like everywhere else. What they guarantee to meet is all costs above the EFC. Yale is a Profile school, so makes its need determinations based on the FAFSA and the CSS Profile forms. (Techinally, "EFC" is FAFSA terminology. The CSS Profile does not make determinations about expected family contributions. The colleges themselves to that according to own methodologies, based on the information provided by both forms.)</p>
<p>This was very confusing for me as well. I had to call the financial aid offices of the school's my daughter was considering and find out their particular policy for applying outside scholarship money. I asked them to list for me, in order, how they would use the money.</p>
<p>to begin with. It is made more complicated when the (very helpful) posters here don't always use the exact term they mean when saying something, or use shortcut lingo.</p>
<p>"Gap" means the amount of "Need" which is not fulfilled by the college by way of either aid, loans or workstudy. Sometimes when people say "meet EFC", they mean "meet full need." When colleges don't meet full need, there is a gap.</p>
<p>Stockmom:</p>
<p>Yale makes up everything the difference between the cost of attendance and EFC with grants, work-study, and summer student jobs - no loans, fortunately. Yale's EFC was actually less than FAFSA's EFC for me because I have a brother who will also be attending college at the same time.</p>