creekland Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 So hubby did our taxes and Fafsa form last night and we have our EFC. They say it is an index and not $$ of any sort, but does it correspond to what a college will be expecting you to pay (as I thought it did)? Or are they totally not related? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 So hubby did our taxes and Fafsa form last night and we have our EFC. They say it is an index and not $$ of any sort, but does it correspond to what a college will be expecting you to pay (as I thought it did)? Or are they totally not related? The FAFSA EFC is solely used for awarding federal aid (Pell Grants, etc.) and your student only qualifies for those if his/her EFC is below a certain amount (I think it's around $4600 this year). Otherwise, it's up to a college to use the FAFSA EFC number as it sees fit in awarding its own aid funds. There is an additional FA form that some colleges want you to fill out called the CSS Profile. The profile considers more things, like the value of your primary home, that the FAFSA does not. Schools that use the profile often generate their own "efc" using the info from both the FAFSA & the profile, and it is often higher than the FAFSA EFC. Once your EFC is determined, the school will decide how much aid (if any) to award your student. A very few of the most selective and ivy schools promise to meet 100% need, so they would award the student an aid package that makes up the difference between their cost of attendance (COA) and your EFC. Most colleges, however, "gap" their students. In other words, they award less aid than COA minus EFC. In this case, parents and students are left figuring out how to pay the rest of the bill. If the student is awarded a merit scholarship, these are usually subtracted from the COA before determining if the student has "need". For example, if the cost of attendance of a school is $30,000/year, and the student is awarded a $10,000/yr merit scholarship, and has a $15,000/year EFC, then the need would be figured as: COA ($30,000) - Merit ($10,000) - $15,000/year (EFC) = $5,000 (this is the "need" the student has). The school can now decide whether to fill that need with additional aid or not. If they choose to fill the need, then most schools offer loans first before grants. Freshman are eligible for up to $5500 Stafford Loan (some of which is interest subsidized if student has "need"). The Financial Aid section of the College Confidential forum is a great place to read about/ask questions about financial aid. Good Luck! Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 ...Schools that use the profile often generate their own "efc" using the info from both the FAFSA & the profile, and it is often higher than the FAFSA EFC. ... Once your EFC is determined, the school will decide how much aid (if any) to award your student. A very few of the most selective and ivy schools promise to meet 100% need, so they would award the student an aid package that makes up the difference between their cost of attendance (COA) and your EFC. Most colleges, however, "gap" their students. In other words, they award less aid than COA minus EFC. In this case, parents and students are left figuring out how to pay the rest of the bill. What Brenda said! My daughter attends a school that guarantees to meet 100% of need. It does not offer any merit aid. Do not make the assumption however that the efc is all that you/your child will have to pay. Our experience with the Profile determined that our resources were much greater than the FAFSA efc had determined. (One issue I have with the Profile is that you have no way of knowing what your efc is. You're effectively operating in the dark.) In addition, "meeting 100% of need" does not mean that you will only pay your efc (FAFSA or Profile generated). My daughter was given $5500 of loans in her financial aid package. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 Thanks. That's the way I thought it worked, but I wasn't 100% sure after reading that it was an "index" and not costs. Time will tell on what the colleges offer at this point - and I'll have to look to see if any need the Profile too. Thanks a ton for that tip as I wasn't thinking about that - had seen info about it, but it slipped my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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