please tell me that large amount is for 4 years and not one? And when do you see the SAR exactly? Assuming via email?
One year at a time.
You get an email saying your fafsa has been processed 2 or 3 days after submission. Then log back in to your fafsa and you can view/print your SAR. The EFC you see is for one academic year.
That is your EFC for 2015-2016: one academic year.
What AGI did you enter? What is the EFC? Maybe you have an error?
That EFC is for current year. Also, that is you minimum out of pocket cost unless you get a lot of merit aid. Even for need met school, you are likely to have loan and workstudy to cover the gap which are still your out of pocket cost in some ways.
It is for ONE year. But note that if you want to know what you might pay at a specific college, you should go and run the net price calculator on each college website on their financial aid webpage. The EFC from the FAFSA doesn’t tell you that; each college has their own formulas and processes for distributing aid.
lol…people wish it were for 4 years…but it’s for ONE YEAR. It’s typically 25%-33% of income…maybe more if you have a lot of assets.
Out of curiosity…have you filled out any NPC’s? If so, what were those results?
Oh goodness what did I do wrong? About $120k income, good net worth…came out in the neighborhood of $90,000! How can that be? Colleges don’t even cost that much!
And NPCs to Ivies and other top tier schools anywhere from $20-30k, and I did three different ones. Now I’m really confused…
<<<<
Oh goodness what did I do wrong? About $120k income, good net worth…came out in the neighborhood of $90,000! How can that be? Colleges don’t even cost that much!
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Did you put your assets in the “student section”???
If you put $200kish in assets in the student section and with that income, you might get results like that.
[QUOTE=""]
And NPCs to Ivies and other top tier schools anywhere from $20-30k
[/QUOTE]
HYPS might give the $20k result. The $30k result is probably more like it.
I got an EFC around 30,000 with a lower AGI than - although still over 100,000.
‘Good net worth’ - you correctly excluded retirement accounts and home equity from investments?
We only own rental homes so included those. Excluded all the IRAs but other mutual funds are not retirement accounts are they? I included all those, savings, mm and checking accounts. Pretty sure it was under parents section. Trying to remember if student section came first?
Can I sign in and will it let me go thru all steps again? I wish I had had a paper copy and put in the same amounts as on the screen. I didn’t write anything down. Just used a calculator to total accounts and to subtract mortgages from what homes are worth. Oh boy.
Just remembered I did FAFSA forecaster a month ago and that around $30k too. Now I’m not sure what to do next…
Rental homes and income can make a big difference.
If you have rental homes and rental income, then likely the NPCs on those private schools will NOT be accurate. Once those schools get ahold of your various deduction, they will likely add some of those back in …especially if you have an depreciation deductions, but also other deductions.
I would be surprised if any private, even an ivy, would end up having only a $20k contribution. I think your contribution may end up being either much higher or ever full freight.
Your mutual funds are not protected.
Your income that isn’t from a “job” will have a rougher calculation as well…so income from investments and income from rental property will have that rougher calculation.
Did you have to add back in any retirement contributions?
Did that $120k income include the rental income? If not, how much did you have to add in rental income?
Do you have any depreciation?
How much do you have in assets?
At this point, the best suggestion is to wait until the FAFSA has processed so you can get back into it. Look at every single thing you entered … you might have entered something on the student side that shouldn’t have been there, or there may be some other explanation. If it is indeed 90k, then rest assured no school will ask you to pay that! 
I was hoping to find the form online where I can input the same data like onscreen but unfortunately the form I found on the FAFSA site just asks basic and then income questions. Yes $120k is AGI and includes everything. About $500k non retirement assets not including rental home equity or the IRAs. Are the non retirement assets bumping the EFC up like that barring mistakes I may have made?
Oh and savings accounts and 529s with our name and children, those we list under parents’ assets?
<<<
About $500k non retirement assets not including rental home equity
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
how much is rental homes’ equity?
[QUOTE=""]
Are the non retirement assets bumping the EFC up like that barring mistakes I may have made? <<<
[/QUOTE]
Yes…big time. Assets will increase EFC by about 6%
The $500k in assets is going to bump the EFC by about $30,000. And that’s not counting the rental equity.
So…the income will cause an EFC of about $30k and the assets will cause an EFC of about $30k (at least), so that is where at least $60k of the EFC is coming from.
I suspect that the NPC results that you’re seeing are very wrong.
edited to add… oh, and you also have 529s? Those are parent assets.
How much in the 529s and how much equity in rentals?
I’m quickly seeing why your EFC is very high.
Are you sure that you listed all those assets on school NPCs? If so, it stretches the imagination how you ever could have gotten such lowish results …even from HYPS.
$500k of non-retirement assets after the savings allowance is adding about $26k to your EFC. Add in 5.6% of the unspecified rental equity and 529 money and guessing at a $35-40k EFC based on income and you’re getting closer to a $90k EFC.
The entire fafsa formula is here. You can work through it manually.
http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/090214EFCFormulaGuide1516.pdf