When I’m reviewing my FAFSA application I see a EFC code. What is that? How do I know if that is a good code or bad code?
Thanks Franson.
What would be a number to be considered high or low. I just need to compare my own number, which is 947.
Estimated Family Contribution. That is your "FAFSA Score". It is what you and your family "should" be expected to pay per year for your college experience. The amount of financial aid you qualify for is typically the total estimated cost of the year of education minus the EFC.
Lower is better, but don’t freak out if yours is high. Colleges muck around with the estimated cost of education, regional cost of living differences, etc, to maximize the amount of aid they can offer.
Run, do not walk, to your school’s financial aid counsellor and see what they can do for you.
947 is a pretty low number for most schools. You can probably expect some fairly decent offers of aid.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Estimated Family Contribution. That is your "FAFSA Score". It is what you and your family "should" be expected to pay per year for your college experience. The amount of financial aid you qualify for is typically the total estimated cost of the year of education minus the EFC.
Lower is better, but don’t freak out if yours is high. Colleges muck around with the estimated cost of education, regional cost of living differences, etc, to maximize the amount of aid they can offer.
Run, do not walk, to your school’s financial aid counsellor and see what they can do for you.
947 is a pretty low number for most schools. You can probably expect some fairly decent offers of aid.
References :
August 31st, 2009 at 10:11 pm
"Low" or "high" depend on which school you’re applying to.
The FAFSA uses a pretty simple formula to determine your financial need: COA – EFC = Financial need. COA is the cost of attendance, which depends on what university you are applying to. It factors in not only tuition, but books, room & board, transportation, etc. So, for example, the total Cost of Attendance at Harvard is about $45,000 for the 2005-2006 school year. A state school will cost substantially less – for example, UCLA (for California residents) will only put you out about $20,000. These numbers are available from every school’s office of financial aid (usually you can find them online).
So you take the COA, and then subtract the dollar amount that your EFC comes out to be (the EFC is usually the parent’s contribution + the student’s contribution). The higher the difference, the more aid you’re likely to get from the government (because it realizes that you need more than someone whose dad owns a multimillion dollar company).
References :
Going through this process…several times