Should congress reduce the EFC to help cut college costs? (NYT article)

Paying for College
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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/opinion/a-quick-way-to-cut-college-costs.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/opinion/a-quick-way-to-cut-college-costs.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The author suggests that the current system for deciding the EFC is a major part of the problem of high college costs and says that government should drastically reduce the EFC. </p>

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<p>The apparent assumption in the article is that most colleges meet need based on FAFSA EFC, which is an erroneous assumption.</p>

<p>Most of the schools that are more generous with financial aid use their own EFC formulae, not FAFSA EFC (which would only be used to determine eligibility for federal aid at such schools). Lots of schools do not meet need at all (even many public schools for their in-state residents), so the improvement in affordability would be limited to increases in federal aid like Pell grants.</p>

<p>The UCs are the most obvious exception, since they give good financial aid to California residents based on FAFSA EFC. However, if the national government changes the FAFSA EFC formula to result in lower FAFSA EFCs, the UCs would likely re-evaluate their financial aid formulae in relation to their financial aid budgets if the change results in an increase in financial aid needed to be given by the schools.</p>

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<p>Reducing EFC will do NOTHING to improve this situation. Most schools do NOT meet full need. The EFC is the minimum one should expect to pay annually for college.</p>

<p>What exactly would reducing EFC do?</p>

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<p>I know one book I’m not buying!</p>

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<p>LOL. You can make EFC zero and still does not help. The question is where the money is coming from.</p>

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<p>Agree I don’t think it will make any difference. The only thing that would make a difference is to RAISE the EFC for Pell eligibility, but then the government would be footing the difference. </p>

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<p>I am so proud of all of you awesome CC’ers. You saw the error of this article! I spit out my coffee when I read it … </p>

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<p>Gah. That book and author goes off my list too. I spit out my tea, Kelsmom. </p>