My EFC is $46K?!?!

Endicott
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:58:07 +0000

I don’t think the FAFSA score is a fluke. There’s an expectation that a certain amount of the expenses will be paid out of present income, a certain amount will come out of savings, and a certain amount, possibly, could come out of loans. If your parents are teachers then they no doubt have guaranteed pensions, which I believe DO count–they are asked about, anyway. And that is actually kind of fair. Having a paid-off house can make your parents appear to have more money than they might otherwise. And again, sadly enough, that is kind of fair, too. I’m in the same boat, and that’s just reality. Again, I would do the same thing with my child (and did), by waiting until I saw what colleges he got into and then make a final decision. As it so happened, he got great scholarships to some fairly nice scholarships, but when he got into a truly fabulous school that was his dream school, we just felt completely and joyfully willing to pay it. But other decisions are reasonable, too.