Question: could somebody say a word about FAFSA? About how much do people usualy get, and how much money do you have to not have in order to get money?

Answer: The FAFSA uses a complex formula to determine what that family supposedly should be able to pay – it’s called the EFC (Expected Family Contribution). The amount by which the total cost of a particular college exceeds the EFC determines the maximum aid that the student might get – it’s called the students “need”.

For example, an EFC of $5,000 means a need of $2,000 at a $7,000 school, $25,000 at a $30,000 school, and none at a $4,000 school.

The school will decide how much of that need they will actually fill, based on funds available and how much they want to invest in that student. The better the student the more likely the school will try to fill the full need.

The EFC is made up of family income and assets, number of family members, number of students in college, age of the oldest parent, how many parents in the family, etc. Because of those many variables, plus the varying costs of the different colleges, there is no specific “cut off” where one can or cannot qualify for aid.

It all depends on the specific situation of that particular family. I’ve worked with lower income families where there was not much aid from one school because it’s cost was already low, and other lower income families where a good student went to a $30,000 college and they paid nothing.
At the other end, I’ve seen families earning over $200,000 get some aid (but not a lot) because they had multiple students attending expensive colleges at the same time. But most families with that kind of income won’t qualify for aid.

The bottom line: if you are a good student you shouldn’t eliminate colleges that you know you can’t afford – financial aid just might make it possible to attend.

But always apply to a handful of colleges, maybe 4 to 6, because the aid offered to a particular student can vary widely even from colleges that all cost about the same. The higher you rank against the other applicants the more money you should expect to see.

But at the same time you should also have a “financial safety school”, one that you could afford or where the need won’t be sky-high, just in case the expensive school can’t or won’t choose to put up big money on your behalf.

And of course you have to apply for aid by the priority deadline set by each college. Miss the deadline and there may be little money left after they finish with those who applied on time.
And we haven’t even talked about the CSS Profile, a second aid application required by some colleges that use a different formula for determining your need from their own funds. When the FAFSA asks about family assets it excludes the family house if you own one – the Profile doesn’t. This can sometimes make a big difference if the family has a lot of equity in the house.

I hope this helps, rather than confuses, but there are often no hard and fast answers in the world of financial aid.

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