Your child is not a senior, and you’re wondering, “Why do I need to worry about tuition costs and estimating my expected family contribution? Can’t I wait a few years?”
NO. Don’t wait!
The more information you have, the better decisions you’ll be able to make.
And talking about how much you can afford to pay for college needs to happen sooner, rather than later. It all boils down to your EFC (expected family contribution).
Your EFC is the minimum amount that colleges will expect you to pay, on a yearly basis.
If a family’s EFC is less than the cost to attend a college, the student qualifies for need-based financial aid.
How to Calculate Your EFC
This is your family’s contribution (Don’t wait! Here’s how to estimate it.)
Your EFC is calculated from the information you submit on the FAFSA and CSS forms.
There are two methodologies used to calculate EFC: Federal and Institutional.
The FAFSA uses the Federal methodology.
In addition to the FAFSA, more selective schools use information from the CSS Profile form, which uses the Institutional method.
Federal Methodology (FM)
This calculation is used to determine your EFC for need-based only federal and state grants, loans, and work study.
(Many states and colleges also use this calculation to award aid.)
Basically, the regular form of this formula takes what you and your child own (non-retirement savings only, house equity is not included) and combines it with you and your child’s adjusted gross income (from your previous year’s tax return).
The formula uses tables to determine how much of your assets and income can be used for college and factors in number of household members and number of other children in college
Institutional Method (IM)
This calculation is used to determine how much money accepted students receive from a college’s own endowment.
There are differences in the way the FM and IM are calculated, with some of the major differences being that IM includes different types of assets in their EFC calculation, such as: home equity, college savings accounts of siblings, scholarships, and assets of a non-custodial parent.
For both methods, parents are expected to contribute a maximum of 5.6% of their assets, while a student is expected to contribute 20 – 25% of their total assets towards college costs.
If you’re really interested in a detailed comparison of the two methods, the College Board gives a good summary.
Remember, with the same EFC, a student may be eligible for financial aid at one school and not at another.
A student’s eligibility is based on their EFC relative to the cost of the college: COA (cost of attendance) – EFC = Financial Need.
Here’s a simplified example (based on income only): parents have a combined income of $180,000, with three dependent children.
Under the FM their EFC is approximately $42,000. At a private, elite college costing $60,000, the student would qualify for $18,000 a year in need-based aid.
But at a state university costing $20,000 per year, the same student would not qualify for aid.
One last thing to keep in mind – colleges are not obligated to meet all your child’s financial need.
Colleges have limited financial aid budgets and tend to offer the most aid to those students who meet their specific enrollment goals (e.g. improve the women’s hockey program or the debate team).
If the college does not meet all of your child’s needs, then you have been “gapped” and you are responsible for finding sources to fill the gap.
Schools That Use the CSS Profile
American University
Amherst College
Bard College
Bates College
Baylor University
Bennington College
Bentley University
Berklee College of Music | Berklee
Boston College | BC
Boston University | BU
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
Bucknell University
California Institute of Technology | Caltech
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University | CMU
Case Western Reserve University
Catholic University of America | CUA
Claremont McKenna College | CMC
Clark University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of the Holy Cross | Holy Cross
College of William & Mary | William & Mary
College of Wooster
Colorado College
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Denison University
DePauw University
Dickinson College
Drexel University
Duke University
Elon University
Emerson College
Emory University
Fairfield University
Fordham University
Franklin and Marshall College | F&M
Furman University
George Washington University | GW
Georgetown University
Gettysburg College
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Hampshire College
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College | HMC
Haverford College
Hobart and William Smith Colleges | HWS
Ithaca College
Johns Hopkins University | JHU
Kenyon College
Lafayette College
Lawrence University
Lehigh University
Loyola University Maryland
Macalester College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT
Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute
Mount Holyoke College
Muhlenberg College
New York University | NYU
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Occidental College
Pitzer College
Pomona College
Principia College
Providence College
Reed College
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | RPI
Rhode Island School of Design | RISD
Rhodes College
Rice University
Sacred Heart University | SHU
Santa Clara University
Scripps College
Skidmore College
Smith College
Southern Methodist University | SMU
St. Anselm College
St. Edward’s University
St. Olaf College
Stanford University
Stetson University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stonehill College
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
Texas Christian University | TCU
Trinity College
Trinity University
Tufts University
Tulane University
Union College (New York)
University of Chicago
University of Denver
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania | UPenn
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of San Francisco | USF
University of Southern California | USC
University of Virginia | UVA
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Villanova University
Wake Forest University
Washington and Lee University
Wellesley College
Wheaton College (Massachusetts)
Whitman College
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute | WPI
Yale University
Final Words…
Don’t leave this post without finding out your family’s EFC now!
If you are interested in finding schools that will be more generous with their merit scholarship money based on your student’s stats and preferences, check out our R2C Insights tool.
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*The College Board: 2012 Trends in Student Aid
