<p>MY son’s EFC is 39,000… We live in the northern suburbs of New York City, My wife and I are two RNs who decided to move back 5 years ago to the town where my 18 yo son was born. We moved down b to Florida,beccause it was cheap and the idea of nice climate. We decided to move back to New York 5 years ago for a couple of good reasons. First because first, we missed being away from family, secondly my wife needed to take care of her ailing parents who lived in the Bronx, and lastly to help out her sister’s family ( her husband died on 9/11 leaving 6 months twins and two kids 3 and 5 at the time) and we decided to move near my brother too. So we sold our house in Florida which was 4 bedrooms 2.5 car garage colonial which sold for only 140,000 dollars, took the profit of 42,000 dollars and we bought a 4 bedroom 2.5 colonial up here, in the same town where my sister in law live for the median price in our county @ that time 520,000 dollars. Our mortage was only 1000/ month in florida and my wife worked part time., Now we both work have a mortgage of 400,000 and payments of 3200.00/ month including taxes 0f 8500/yr.
Our present house is the same size as the one in Florida, both of kids attend public school up here which is among the best in the USA, opposed to Central Florida the public schools my kids went to were horrible ( we sent our kids to Catholic school there).
My beef is why the wizards who develop FASFA can justify comparing regions of the country where a family A who lives in the same county where he grew up, say the burbs of NYC, SF, LA, Boston with the same size as family B who lives in Omaha, Duluth, Biloxi. Both families also live in the exactly the same size house, two parents who have the same exact job, who lived in the house for the same exact length of time. also buys the same amount of groceries, has cable, internet, two nice cars, etc.
But here where it gets funny. Family A earns twice the amount of money than family B ( which is the median income for that surbuburn regions of SF, LA, NY, Boston, ) , but family A’s housing costs are 4 times as much) plus family A pays more for car insurance, has higher commuting costs, etc. Now I now what is coming next… This is Family’s A’s choice to live, in these high costs areas and they always have the option of movingway from family and friends to family B’s region 1000 miles away so we can have a lower EFC.s
Ok now lets’s say family’ B parents who both work for a large corporation and are told the company is downsizing. The nice CFO says we can give you choices to relocate in Family A’s cities and guess what… in order to make it fair because we all know of the high housing costs there. we are going to double your salaries!! and pay for relocation costs, beef up your 401 k, even help with paying your mortgage for a year and giving you 100,000 tax free dollars for a down payment for your new 515,000 house, sounds great right? Now would family B who also happens to be saavy CCers, move? You tell me !!! Maybe. but they have a 17 yo senior who wants to go to that highly regarded LAC right near mom and dad’s proposed new home. Now would family B’ move??
You tell me</p>
<p>okwjoe - how does your efc look per Profile analysis? Is it similar or less due to various cost of living expenses.</p>
<p>how do you figure your efc using profile?</p>
<p>okwjoe, You summed up my beef perfectly. I could not have articulated the problem any better. This story has been told time and time again on cc. Are you my new neighbor, LOL? I am so sorry to learn about your sister in law’s husband.</p>
<p>to the poster above… the profile gave me a efc of 32000, but the only schools my son applied to requiring the profile was columbia and cornell and those are reaches for him like everyone… still at the Ivy’s there would be a big gap… but that is ok… that is expected… but when EFC is that high and schools only give a percentage of aid based on it … it really ***** big time…
northeastmom… Thank you for the compliment… usually my wife tells me to stifle myself because all I talk about it is CC stuff since the last 18 months or so… she is one of those live and let live types … not a type A… like me!!! LOL I live in Rockland County BTW</p>
<p>Are you by any chance including the value of the home you live in, or retirement funds as investments? That sounds high for an EFC.</p>
<p>Actually that EFC sounds about right for two professional folks who are working full time at salaried jobs. </p>
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<p>I don’t understand this comment at all. The Ivies meet full need. They don’t “gap” at all. Is the gap between what you feel you can reasonably pay or is the gap the difference between the finaid award and your full need (COA minus EFC)?</p>
<p>There are a lot of folks in the same boat as the OP…living in high cost areas of the country. This isn’t just in the greater NYC area, but also on most of the east coast, especially DC and north, the west coast, and the major metro areas even in the midwest (e.g. Chicago). In particular, housing costs for those who purchased their homes recently can be quite high. But as the OP pointed out…this could be viewed as a choice.</p>