EFC - what is the formula?

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Congress sets the formula for calculating the EFC - does anyone know it, or know of a table where one can compare such things as assets verses EFC? If you have a link, that would be great.
Thanks

2

Sorry, I don’t know the real formula. Another post mentionned voodoo chants to determine the EFC. I did my FAFSA about a month ago, and I have a savings account for the purpose of college (again). The FAFSA calculated my EFC at exactly $5 more than what was in my savings account; it was scary. They ask for checking & savings & investments so it was scary that they knew how much $$ I have in savings and how much is in my checking account.
Love,
Stacy

3

I just completed my FAFSA today. My EFC was exaclty $1K over the sum of my investments + savings + checking. It’s also within a couple $K’s of my wife’s 2003 income, so who know’s what the heck it’s based off of?

4

Quote:

I just completed my FAFSA today. My EFC was exaclty $1K over the sum of my investments + savings + checking. It’s also within a couple $K’s of my wife’s 2003 income, so who know’s what the heck it’s based off of?

Hey Chris,
Don’t worry too much about this number. There is a max that you can borrow (from the Feds)for your school and you probably will qualify for the maximum unless you are independently wealthy. Anything above this has to come from family contribution or private lenders. I had an EFC of some ridiculous number too as my mother was retired and living on a fixed income and I was in my 40s. In the end, that number was meaningless as I borrowed well beneath the max amount allowed for Howard which was something like $36,000 for both tuition and living expenses for 9 months.
You could e-mail the Department of Education and ask them what formula they use but they are not going to subtract that number from your total financial aid especially if you have a family. They Department of Education still does not consider family expenses in calculating the total amount that you can borrow. They only include expenses for the student (number is set by the school) and anything above that, they expect you to borrow from private sources or from spouse income.
Natalie

5

If anyone finds that out, I’d love to hear it.

6

There is a description from the Department of Education here and an EFC Estimator available here.