<p>How “estimated” can my numbers be? It will be weeks/months until we have assembled all the forms necessary for a real filing. We expect to have a high EFC and not qualify for federal financial aid. But my son has applied for a lot of merit scholarships and on the applications to colleges he did check yes to the question “will you apply for financial aid?” So how does one estimate and can I be off by a couple thousand dollars?</p>
<p>I generaly use the numbers from teh prior year’s tax return, but round everything to end in ,000 so it is obvious it is an estimate.</p>
<p>If you knwo somethign will be much different, make that adjsutment.</p>
<p>It has been no issue when one year income was highe than estimated and one year lower tahn estimated.</p>
<p>just use the previous year but predict whether this year will be better or not, my dad and I just did it, ugh sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying</p>