Expected family contribution consists of your parents’ contribution from their income and certain assets plus your student contribution from your income and certain assets. EFC is adjusted by allowances for federal income taxes and state taxes your family pays and a portion of income that your family is not expected to contribute.
Full Answer
What is my Expected Family Contribution (EFC)?
This tool calculates your EFC, a measure of your family’s financial strength. Colleges and states use this number to help determine your financial aid award. Students and their families are expected to contribute to the cost of college to the extent that they’re able. Use this 2022-23 academic year Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator to:
What is expected family contribution on FAFSA form?
COMPLETING THE FAFSA® FORM Your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is an index number used to determine your eligibility for federal student financial aid. This number results from the financial information you provide in your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form. It's reported to you on your Student Aid Report (SAR).
What does it mean if my expected family contribution is small?
The larger your expected family contribution, the less financial aid you will be eligible to receive. The smaller your EFC, the more financial aid you will be eligible to receive. We say “will be eligible to receive” because you may not receive the full amount you’re eligible for.
How does the federal government calculate my expected family contribution?
The federal government calculates your expected family contribution using the figures you provide on your FAFSA. These figures include your family’s pre-tax income, after-tax income, assets, unemployment benefits and Social Security benefits.
How do you calculate your EFC?
The student's EFC is determined by adding the student and spouse's contribution from available income to their contribution from assets and then dividing the sum by the number in college.
What is a good EFC number?
Get a Job. An EFC number under 5273 often qualifies you for a work study job. While most of these jobs are catered to students, giving them flexible hours and time to study, their pay is often low and any money earned is directly applied toward tuition and fees.
What does an EFC of 14000 mean?
So, if a school's COA is $42,000 and the student's EFC is $28,000, the calculated financial need is $14,000. While your Expected Family Contribution will not impact non-need-based awards (like merit scholarships), the need-based aid you receive won't exceed your EFC.
What does EFC of $10000 mean?
Most schools do not meet 100% of financial need for all of their students. If your EFC is $10,000, your financial aid package may still require you to pay $12,000, $15,000 or $20,000, depending on the tuition and expenses each college charges.
What does an EFC of 18000 mean?
If your financial need is $18,000, one college may offer you $16,000 in grants and a $2,000 loan, while another college may offer you a $5,000 grant and $13,000 in loans. Both colleges are offering you a financial aid package of $18,000, but you will pay more out of your pocket at the college that awards more loan aid.
What does an EFC of $50 000 mean?
Cost of Attendance (COA) – Expected Family Contribution (EFC) = Financial Need. For example, if the total COA (Tuition & Fees, Room and Board, Books, Supplies, etc) at a particular school was $50,000, and the family's EFC from the FAFSA was $30,000, they would have $20,000 of financial need.
What does an EFC of 30000 mean?
This means low-income students will often be eligible for more financial aid. For example: Say your EFC is $15,000 and your school's cost of attendance is $40,000. With this EFC, your calculated financial need would be $25,000. But if you had a higher EFC of $30,000, your financial need would be only $10,000.
Why is FAFSA EFC so high?
The EFC is so high, more often than not, because of a high family income. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the household income gets, the steeper the EFC becomes. A high-income background makes financial aid experts think that their families can shoulder a bigger portion of the cost of college.
What EFC qualifies for Pell Grant?
Income Limit The Department of Education will use your family's income and expenses to calculate your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). To be eligible for the Pell Grant for the 2021-2022 academic year, your EFC needs to be at or below $5,846. Because of this, there is no set income cutoff for Pell Grant eligibility.
Is an EFC of 5000 Good?
If your EFC is $5,000 and the school's cost of attendance is $20,000, your calculated financial need is $15,000. So, a lower EFC is more beneficial. For a student with the average American household AGI of $50,000, their EFC typically ranges from $3,000-$4,000.
What does an EFC of $20000 mean?
If you have an EFC of $20,000, the college meets 70% of financial need, this leaves you with 30% of unmet need (Example, total cost $40,000 less EFC equals financial need of $20,000 times 30% unmet need $6,000. So your theoretical out of pocket costs would be your EFC $20,000 plus unmet need of $6,000 equals $26,000.
What does an EFC of 12000 mean?
For example, 12000 is $12,000. This means that the federal government (and colleges) expect your family to be able to reasonably contribute $12,000 per year towards your college expenses. That said, the EFC number is not the definitive amount your family must pay for school. Rather, the number is a starting point.
Is an EFC of 5000 Good?
If your EFC is $5,000 and the school's cost of attendance is $20,000, your calculated financial need is $15,000. So, a lower EFC is more beneficial. For a student with the average American household AGI of $50,000, their EFC typically ranges from $3,000-$4,000.
What does an EFC of 20000 mean?
If you have an EFC of $20,000, the college meets 70% of financial need, this leaves you with 30% of unmet need (Example, total cost $40,000 less EFC equals financial need of $20,000 times 30% unmet need $6,000. So your theoretical out of pocket costs would be your EFC $20,000 plus unmet need of $6,000 equals $26,000.
What does a EFC of 6000 mean?
Use the EFC during your college selection process, because finances are a bigger deal than you think. In theory, if the FAFSA® reports that your EFC is $6,000, you'd only have to come up with $6,000 to help fund your education.
What EFC qualifies for Pell Grant 2020 21?
5711The maximum expected family contribution (EFC) eligible for a Pell Grant for the 2021–22 Award Year is 5846 as compared to 5711 for the 2020–21 Award Year.
Why do families have to pay more for college than their EFC?
Families will usually have to pay more for college than their EFC indicates they can afford because most schools do not meet 100% of a student’s demonstrated financial need. Consequently, it’s important to identify the most generous colleges that would consider a child an attractive candidate. No. 7:Co. Parents can obtain their Expected Family ...
What is the EFC for a $50,000 AGI?
No. 2: The EFC for the average American household with an AGI of $50,000 will usually range from $3,000 to $4,000. There is no cap on EFCs so some very wealthy families will have EFCs that exceed the cost of an expensive private university.
Do schools have to include EFC on financial aid?
Unfortunately, many schools don’t include a family’s EFC on their financial aid awards. Some institutions suggest that including the EFC on their aid letters will confuse families. More likely, schools don’t want to share EFC figures with families because they can then determine if the package is stingy.
Does the SAR put a dollar sign in front of EFC?
Parents should check for accuracy. Strangely enough, the SAR does not put a dollar sign in front of a family’s EFC figure.
Why do families pay more for college than the expected family contribution?
But, despite the name, most families will pay more for college than the expected family contribution because of gapping, minimum student contributions and student loans.
How much does CSS profile reduce parent contribution?
The CSS Profile is less generous, reducing the parent contribution by 40% instead of 50% for two children in college, 55% instead of 67% for three children in college and 65% instead of 75% for four children in college.
What is EFC in financial aid?
The EFC is subtracted from the college’s cost of attendance to calculate financial need and determine the student‘s eligibility for need based aid. Examples of federal need-based financial aid include: Subsidized federal student loans. Unsubsidized federal student loans. Grants.
What is the EFC on the FAFSA 2021?
After you file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), you’ll receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) that includes the expected family contribution (EFC) on the top right. The EFC is an index of the family’s ability to pay for college.
What happens if you have a lower EFC?
A lower EFC will yield more federal financial aid. The less financial aid . you get, the more you will have to cover with savings or student loans. Eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant depends only on the EFC. Applicants whose EFC is less than 90% of the maximum Federal Pell Grant will receive a Federal Pell Grant.
What is a parent asset?
Parent Assets. A portion of parent assets are sheltered, based on the age of the older parent. Assets may also be sheltered by the Simplified Needs Test. The FAFSA excludes certain assets, such as retirement plans, net home equity of the family home and small businesses owned and controlled by the family.
How much is the average EFC?
The overall average EFC is about $10,000, with an average of about $6,000 for students at community colleges and $14,000 at 4-year colleges. Slightly more than half of students have an EFC of $2,500 or less. Slightly more than 10% have an EFC greater than $25,000.
What is expected family contribution?
Expected family contribution consists of your parents’ contribution from their income and certain assets plus your student contribution from your income and certain assets. EFC is adjusted by allowances for federal income taxes and state taxes your family pays and a portion of income that your family is not expected to contribute. ...
How does the federal government calculate the expected family contribution?
The federal government calculates your expected family contribution using the figures you provide on your FAFSA. These figures include your family’s pre-tax income, after-tax income, assets, unemployment benefits and Social Security benefits. Other information about your family, such as how many children will be in college during ...
Why does EFC change?
Your EFC will change every year because your family’s income and assets won’t be the same every year.
How does expected family contribution affect college financial aid?
Your college financial aid is impacted by your expected family contribution, which is the U.S. Department of Education’s calculation of the dollar amount your family can hypothetically afford to pay toward your upcoming year of college. Your expected family contribution, or EFC, impacts how much federal financial aid you receive ...
What happens if you have a smaller EFC?
The larger your expected family contribution, the less financial aid you will be eligible to receive. The smaller your EFC, the more financial aid you will be eligible to receive. We say “will be eligible to receive” because you may not receive the full amount you’re eligible for. It depends on how much government money is available ...
What are means tested benefits?
Whether you receive federal means-tested benefits such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income or food stamps. Besides parent and student income and allowances, certain assets help determine your expected family contribution.
Is EFC a measure of financial strength?
That’s why you’ll see EFC referred to as a measure of your family’s financial strength or mistakenly written out as “estimated financial contribution.”. It’s not the amount you’re going to pay for a year of college. EFC won’t tell you whether you can afford a particular school, either.
What does a high number mean for financial aid?
A high number now means you need to explore something other than need-based financial aid.
What is the lowest EFC number?
Zero is the lowest EFC number; 99,999 is the highest. If a dependent students’ family’s income is less than $24,000 and government assistance was needed for that filing year, the EFC will automatically be zero. A zero means a family has no ability to contribute to the student’s education. If your number is high, well….
Where is the EFC located?
It is located on the Student Aid Report (SAR).
Why is the EFC formula so complicated?
The EFC formula is complicated — big surprise! — because it takes a lot of factors into account. It also changes slightly from year to year. You can get a completist version of the 2019–20 school year rules in this 36-page guide from the Department of Education.
What is EFC in financial aid?
If you’re hoping to receive a substantial amount of need-based financial aid for college or graduate school, your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will be one of the most important numbers you’ll ever see. (Need-based financial aid is financial aid you receive because you couldn’t afford college otherwise; “merit-based” financial aid doesn’t ...
What is the EFC method?
EFC Method 1: The FAFSA. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is required of every student in the United States who is seeking any kind of federal financial aid — which is to say, pretty much every student! Most colleges in the U.S. use it as their only application for need-based financial aid.
Can CSS be used to determine eligibility for federal aid?
The CSS Profile can never be used to determine your eligibility for federal aid. It’s only used to determine access to the college’s aid dollars. If your school uses the CSS Profile, it’s going to ask for a lot of information about your and your parents’ income and assets — way more than the FAFSA does.
Does FAFSA look at your parents' assets?
Second, the formula will look at your parents’ assets. The FAFSA isn’t interested in their retirement accounts. It also doesn’t look at home equity or the assets of small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. But it does want to know what your parents have in savings, checking, and taxable investment accounts.
Begin Your Estimate for Federal Student Aid
Before you complete the FAFSA form, the Federal Student Aid Estimator can help you understand your options to pay for college or career school by providing an early estimate of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and eligibility for federal student aid.
Still have questions about the Federal Student Aid Estimator? Visit the Help Center
You can also contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243 or visit our “Contact Us” page for additional options.
