Expected Family Contribution

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The Expected Family Donation ( EFC ) is an estimate of the ability of parents and/or students to contribute to one year of post-secondary education expenses. EFC is used in the process of student financial assistance in the United States to determine the applicant's eligibility for federal-based student assistance, and in many cases, state and institutional assistance (college). This is located in the Student Assistance Report and Institutional Student Information Notes sent after the Federal Student Aid Free Application (FAFSA) is processed. If FAFSA has not been submitted, there are a number of calculators on the Web (see link below) which will provide a good estimate of the family EFC.

Needs-based assistance should be re-applied every year; that is, new FAFSAs must be submitted each year, EFC recalculated, and financial assistance may be adjusted.

EFC is not what students actually pay, which is usually higher, sometimes much higher.

Video Expected Family Contribution

Use of Expected Family Contributions

The federal government does not distribute direct assistance to students or students' families; it's past the campus. Colleges use the eligibility of federal student assistance students and combine them with state financial assistance (if any) and their own assistance to create financial aid packages (awards), which are sent to students. In general, the lower the EFC the higher the award the financial aid will be. Zero is the lowest EFC number (the family can not afford anything) and 99,999 is the highest. Qualified students are eligible for EFC auto zero if their family income is under $ 23,000 for 2012-2013 and they also receive funding from one of the Federal Benefits programs (SSI, SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamp program), WIC, or Free/Reduce the Lunch Price) or apply 1040A, 1040EZ, or is not required to complete a tax return, or the parent is a sprained worker.

Some relatively wealthy colleges and universities use the CSS Profile, or have their own form, to calculate their own personal EFC, which they use in distributing college assistance itself. The main difference between FAFSA and CSS Profile is that the CSS Profile takes home equity (the value of your home) into account when determining the ability to pay, whereas FAFSA does not.

EFC is deducted from the attendance fee (COA) of a college or university to determine students' financial needs. If COA & gt; EFC , then a student has a Financial Need. Colleges try, but often can not afford, to see that the student receives all the help he needs.

If EFC is less than the maximum Pell Grant ($ 5,730 in 2014-2015), students will receive Pell Grant. The number of grants is the difference between the EFC and the maximum Grant. If EFC is $ 3,000, students will receive a grant of $ 2,730 (in 2014-2015).

Maps Expected Family Contribution

Calculation

Parents often want to know how their EFC has been calculated. The formula is complex, changing every year, depending on three tables (dependent students, independent students without dependents other than spouses, and independent students with dependents other than spouse), and published in the Federal Register. A Department of Education document explains how the EFC is determined to fill 36 pages. Briefly, this is seen in family size, allowing for living expenses, and on family and student savings. If the student is dependent, which usually occurs in college adolescent students, student savings and income, if any, are considered highly available to pay for college. A student with a college savings fund in his name will have a higher EFC (if not qualified for automatic zero), and will typically receive less need-based assistance.

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Lowering EFC

Items that lower student EFC:

• Additional family members supported by the head of the household (for example, siblings or grandparents living at home)
• Additional family members on campus. (The EFC is shared among students in college.)
• Low earnings (especially student earnings)
• Fewer assets (especially student assets)

Colleges or universities have the legal authority to lower EFCs if there are unusual circumstances, usually brought to the attention of the financial aid office as a result of the appeal of financial aid awards. These circumstances include:

• Loss of work
• Loss of [[child support, benefits, etc.
• Separation or divorce
• Death of a parent or spouse
• Large medical or dental costs not covered by insurance
• Revenue is very high because of one-off payments that will most likely not happen again.

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Exceptions

• Equity in the family's main house. (The second house is counted.)
• Parental pension funds, such as 401k.
• Consumer debt, such as car loans and credit cards.

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Actual family payout

A common misconception is that the EFC is a statement about what the family will actually pay. This does not usually happen, and many families have to pay more, sometimes more, than EFC. In an ideal world, where all colleges have enough financial help to meet all the students' financial needs, EFC will be what the family donates. In fact, only wealthy and selective colleges (the most difficult to accept) have the resources to meet every student's needs. When college can not meet all the needs, the rest must be out of parent resources.

In some cases, where a student is eligible for financial assistance based (not on a need basis), the family pays less than EFC.

src: financialaid.berkeley.edu

Independent and dependent students

Unmarried students, younger than 24, and not supporting small children are categorized as Dependent Students, and parental income and assets are used in determining EFC. Even if parents do not have the intention to help pay for student tuition, which they legally do not have to do, the student remains dependent and the income and parental assets are used in determining the EFC and through it, the student financial aid award. In other words, if the parent is able but does not want to help pay for student tuition, financial assistance will not increase because of it. This is determined by the United States Congress.

In exceptional cases, such as child parental abuse and parental communication with children prohibited by courts, the college financial support office may change the student's status from Dependent to Independent.

src: undergradaid.northwestern.edu

See also

• FAFSA
• Student financial assistance in the United States

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References

src: undergradaid.northwestern.edu

External links

• Unofficial EFC Calculator
• What Is Expected Family Contribution (EFC)?
• Know the Expected Family Contributions
• Finaid.org, a good independent website in college financial assistance.

Source of the article : Wikipedia