CSPANGLER

Is it likely that my DD will get any federal aid? Grades are 4.5 GPA with 1860 SAT. I know she will do well with merit based aid but they don't seem to give much more than about $15-17,000. Our EFC on the forcaster is about $22,000. Do they take debt into account at all? mortgage?

swimcatsmom

With an EFC of 22,000 the only federal aid she is likely to get is Stafford loans. All students that are eligible for federal aid and file FAFSA are eligible for $5500 Stafford loans as freshmen. The EFC is too high for federal grant aid. The Pell grant is the main federal gran and requires an EFC of <4617 for the 2009-2010 school year. Most other federal grant aid such as the ACG & SMART grants require Pell eligibility.

No they don't take debt into account. The only exceptions are debt that is directly against a reportable asset. The primary home is not a reportable asset so any mortgage against it would not be considered. A second home would be a reportable asset so is taken into account in that the reportable value of the home would be reduced by the amount of the mortgage. Other debt such as credit card debt or car loans etc are not taken into account by FAFSA at all.