<p>I’m a little confused as I have heard that colleges will expect parents to pay 25% of their adjusted gross income for tuition, etc. Is this accurate across the board or variable based on institution? Also, why are scholarship dollars limited in order to get financial aid? I will need lots of scholarship money to pay for the EFC, but it looks like it will not be possible and the college will expect more cash out of my parents pockets if I get more scholarships. Totally confused.</p>
<p>EFC is generally what families pay * before* financial aid.
Let me qualify that- ^^ at schools that meet 100% of need.
Most do not.
It is expected that families will pay for college expenses from a combination of savings, current income & loans.</p>
<p>In general EFC is around 1/3 to 1/4 of before tax income- mileage may very due to assets & expenses.</p>
<p>The EFC has a lot of variables. 25% - 35% is typical. The EFC is supposed to be paid out of current earnings (yours and parents), college savings, and loans. If your family has not saved for college you don’t get more aid because of that.</p>
<p>Any merit aid will reduce need first. Colleges can only give need based aid up to the amount of the EFC.</p>
<p>It will vary from family to family as well as how expensive the college is…but the expectations is that costs will be paid out of savings, current income or future income (loans). But remember costs can be low if a student stays home and commutes for a couple years or costs can be high if a student desires to attend a private college. Throw in the fact that some colleges discount tuition through the use of merit money and the final costs can be different than the published cost. Many college DO reduce their aid when a student earns scholarships and there are some that will let you stack them to reduce your out of pocket…it takes some digging to figure out which do what. Simply saying that college costs out of pocket 25% of current income is abit of a generalization but not a bad rule of thumb to operate from. Hopefully you have some affordable schools on your list.</p>
<p>* Also, why are scholarship dollars limited in order to get financial aid? I will need lots of scholarship money to pay for the EFC, but it looks like it will not be possible and the college will expect more cash out of my parents pockets if I get more scholarships. Totally confused. *</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t give merit scholarships.</p>
<p>If you get outside merit scholarships they will reduce your need-based aid. They won’t go towards your EFC…unless your private scholarships are so big (unlikely) that they cover all of your need based aid and THEN cut into EFC.</p>
<p>Since it sounds like your family may not be able to afford their EFC, you need to make sure that you have some good financial safety schools on your list. Since you have the stats to be considered for MIT, that suggests that you have the stats for some huge scholarships elsewhere.</p>