FAFSA income limit?

swimcatsmom
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:34:59 +0000

I know it’s a sensitive question, and perhaps this is why nobody wants to answer:

There is really no definitive answer to your question. The FAFSA generated EFC is based on a combination of income, assets, size of family, number of college students in that family. It can be affected by the source of the income (income from work gets allowances that income not from work does not), the state the applicant is from (each state is given different allowances in the EFC formula), the amount of federal tax paid etc etc. Student A may have the same family income as student B but may come out with a way different EFC because he comes from a family of 5 with 3 in college, while Student B comes from a 2 person family with just 1 in college.

Also the aid is based on things other than the EFC generated by FAFSA. As you know FAFSA itself does not give you any aid. The aid is awarded by the school. If you have an EFC of 20,000 and the school costs 18,000 then there will be no need based aid. If you have an EFC of 20,000 and the school costs $45,000 then there may be some aid (if the school provides institutional aid, at that EFC there would be no federal grant aid).

As far as federal grant aid is concerned the main federal grant is the Pell. For 2009-2010 the EFC cut off for the Pell was 4617. That would require a fairly low income. But student A with a family of 5 and 2 in college might have that low an EFC with a parent income of $70,000 while Student B with a family of 2 and only 1 in college might have to have a parent income of $40,000 or less to get that low an EFC.