<p>IM-Profile was designed under the auspices of College Board, and with consultations of college financial aid offices. Thus, CB’s estimator is “accurate” for Profile. But, in reality, it does not much matter since every college can and does interpret the result differently. In theory, the 568 Group, which includes BC, agree to follow the ‘Consensus Approach’ for calculating EFC. But, every college has different policies – Harvard provides need based aid up to $180k income, fore example – and every Financial Aid officer can can use professional judgement in implementing that calculated EFC, under extenuating circumstances, such as high medical bills, private school tuition for a sib, non-custodial parent, sole proprietorships, etc. </p>
<p>Note, the Consensus Approach starts with CB’s IM.</p>
<p>[Consensus</a> Methodology](<a href=“http://568group.org/methodology/index.html]Consensus”>http://568group.org/methodology/index.html)</p>
<p>Here is a great example of how FinAid officers apply Professional Judgement within the confines of their colleges’ finaid budget:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1056595-good-news-bad-news-20.html#post11900926[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1056595-good-news-bad-news-20.html#post11900926</a></p>