IMO, Option 1 is more user-friendly than Option 2, but that’s me.
The FAFSA spreadsheet is intended for DEPENDENT STUDENTS and is probably not appropriate for your situation.
Thanks for letting me know. My daughter will be going to college in 2020 so I’ll be filling out the FAFSA for her in Oct. If you think it would be useful to me for that, I would still be interested. Thanks!
@FafsaQuestions I don’t think the EFC formula for 2020/21 has been published yet. But the 2019/20 EFC spreadsheet (based on the 2019/20 EFC formula) should give you an idea.
The Collegeboard EFC calculator will work for dependent and independent students
This might be a really naive question … but is the EFC for ALL FOUR YEARS OF SCHOOL or only for that year? In other words, if you fill out FAFSA and have an EFC of $48,000 – is it that you’re expected to pay $48,000 a year or $48,000 as your contribution over the course of college?
The EFC is for that year. Financial aid forms are submitted every year and a new EFC is calculated. I think in most cases the EFC is the minimum you can expect to pay.
. The EFC represents one year, the year for which you are applying for financial aid. However, it is a mistake to think of it as the amount you are “expected” to pay. The number has no meaning in an absolute dollars sense. It indicates just two things: 1) whether you will qualify for a FEDERAL financial aid (Pell grant, subsidized loan, work-study, SEOG), and 2) it’s an index that shows where you are on the scale of potential financial aid from each institution.
I’ve been arguing for years that the result of your FAFSA should be an index number 1-10, with use of decimal points in between. A result of 1 is the greatest need, 10 is no need. So, for example, the federal government can set a cut-off of, say, 3.5 for a federal Pell grant, 2.0 for SEOG, 5.0 for subsidized loans, and 6.0 for work-study. An index system like this will eliminate the widespread confusion that the EFC is the exact amount of money that a student will pay.
That’s a really good idea^^!
i just sat through a sophomore/jr college planning sessions. EFC was briefly mentioned, but the questions included “so, is the EFC what i pay?” and “if the EFC isn’t necessarily what i pay, who covers the rest?”
I wish the presenter would have said how the etc basically just lets people know if they qualify for Pell grants/ subsidized loans; she seemed to skirt the whole concept.
Sounds like that presenter didn’t really know.
First of all, EFC does not mean what you’re expected to pay.
Your EFC could be $20,000, but you may end up having to pay $40,000 per year
Secondly, EFC is for one year