<p>According to the FAFSA, the EFC of my family of 5 (who lives in GA) is about 17k.</p>
<p>What is the average EFC for this amount of income (assuming a comparable cost of living)?</p>
<p>Also, we have some investments and savings, so could this have affected it if it’s indeed too large a number?</p>
<p>Sounds about right. They don’t take cost of living into consideration. Of course the investments and savings affected it. But that’s kind of the point.</p>
<p>Yes…your income/assets (if large) will affect EFC.</p>
<p>However, many people find that their EFC is about 20-23% of income. </p>
<p>The system assumes that the primary responsibility to pay for college lies with the family.</p>
<p>If you have an unaffordable EFC (and many people do), then consider applying to some schools that will give very large merit scholarships that are big enough that once they are subtracted from the school costs, then the remaining costs are lower than your EFC. </p>
<p>Obviously if the school cost is $32k and your EFC is $17k, then the scholarship would have to be for $20k (per year) to get your cost down to $12k per year.</p>
<p>Regional cost of living doesn’t matter. </p>
<p>And, EFC is not based on an assumption that costs will get paid out of current income…there’s an assumption that there are savings to put towards college, current income can provide some money, and loans may need to be taken out.</p>
<p>However, if this is your first child to go to college, avoid taking out Parent loans if you won’t have them paid off by the time the next child goes to college. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself with even more debt.</p>
<p>We had a similar income and EFC when our DS applied for undergrad in 2004.
It seemed like too much but I learned it was about right, comparatively.
We had (and have) little in non-retirement investments. THAT actually was a plan on our part since FAFSA only schools do not count retirement assests (except the current year’s contribution).</p>
<p>We did save in a 529 for about 10 years. That covered about 1/3 of his expenses for 4 years. He took Stafford loans and we paid from current income and a small parents loan in our name.</p>
<p>For families in the middle (maybe everyone??), it is usually a mush of different sources to get to $$$$ needed.</p>
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<p>And many other people find that their FAFSA EFC is between 25% and 33% of the GROSS income. This amount has been bantered around as an estimate, especially for those with incomes approaching $100K per year.</p>