<p>@Luigi: No, I’d be totally happy to share my FAFSA vs. institutional methodology financial aid experiences with you.</p>
<p>I’ve actually gone through this college app game before (I took a gap year, then reapplied), and the FAFSA EFC was consistently lower than the actual EFCs I received from the schools I applied to. That said, financial aid awards can range like crazy between schools (for example, Carleton asked for about $6000/yr from my family and some of my other schools were $19-20k/yr). It’s kind of hard to say whether your FAFSA EFC will accurately reflect any of your actual EFC(s) from the schools to which you are admitted, as different schools have different ways of tabulating their aid awards (some look at your bank account statements, some don’t charge tuition to families below a certain income ceiling, etc. etc.). If your EFC is so high because of your assets, you might want to mention your family’s costs and/or debts, if they have any, on your CSS profile or directly to financial aid offices.</p>
<p>The short of what I’m saying is that the FAFSA EFC is not entirely reliable, at least in my experience. Then again, we didn’t do the best job on our FAFSA…</p>