vossron

^ You'll get a preliminary estimate of your EFC before you have to accept or decline the school's ED financial aid offer. If your 2009 1040 shows more or less income than your submitted estimate, your final EFC can be proportionately more or less than the estimate, but problems seem to be rare (our D's LAC's FA director has never seen a change in enrollment plans due to a change in EFC). If your D is accepted ED needing FA, it means the school really wants her to attend.

Lafalum84

Lafayette's FA webpage has a FA calculator that will give you an "estimate" of your financial "need" for next year. It uses pretty much the same data as the CSS Profile, which you'll eventually have to file. I have found it to be pretty accurate. If you want to know how much FA you'll probably be offered if your kid is accepted ED, try using the FA calculator (of course it's only as accurate as the data you put into it). If your kid is accepted ED I would be shocked if Lafayette didn't offer to meet 100% of her need. They have a very large endowment (even after the crash) for a school of this size. I would expect Bucknell would also be able to meet the EFC of a student accepted ED, and for the vast majority of their students.

PaJay1962

Thanks for the info - helps lighten the stress (a little)!