The contribution that a student can make toward paying for college is treated differently on the fafsa compared with the css. In the postsecondary education system of the united states, an expected family contribution efc is an estimate of a students, and for a dependent student, their parents or guardians, ability to pay the costs of a year of postsecondary education. Your home equity will count on the css profile, but not the fafsa. If an faa makes an adjustment for a student who may be eligible for a federal pell grant, the faa should use the ede corrections function or the sar to send the adjusted information to the cps. The css profile, like the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa, is used to assess your familys income and assets to calculate your expected family contribution. The governments formula is called the federal methodology and the cssprofile formula is called the institutional methodology. The efc formula guide shows exactly how an efc is calculated.
Updated for 2017, this guide provides straightforward explanations of expected family contribution efc, needbased financial aid, merit aid and the two aid forms, the fafsa and css profile. Some institutions have their own financial aid forms that differ from the profile form. The fafsa weighs parents income much more heavily than parent assets, assessing income according to a scale of 22 to 47 percent of available income. The following colleges, universities, and scholarship programs use css profile andor idoc as part of their financial aid process for some or all of their financial aid applicants in the populations listed below. From what i can see, it appears that reed only requires families to pay this efc amount, and the school gives a grant to cover the rest. An ultimate guide to understanding college financial aid. Colleges are required to use the results of the fafsa for awarding federal aid. I called the financial aid office of one of the schools to ask about appealing, and was told by a financial aid counselor that my expected family contribution according to the css said 75,000. It gathers data from students and families and then colleges use their own calculations to determine a students need for private aid from that institution. See also the efc formula book, 199899 for tables listing income protection allowances. Frequently asked questions financial aid lehigh university. Css profile the css profile has different asset reporting requirements than the fafsa. How assets hurt college aid eligibility on fafsa and css.
The calculator will also produce an efc using the institutional methodology, which is linked to the css profile. Almost all colleges offer a net price calculator on their website. The efc formula guide includes worksheets and tables that can be used to calculate an expected family contribution efc. The ultimate guide to completing the css profile going merry. Eligibility for a pell is based on a familys expected family contribution, or efc, and is calculated on the fafsa. There are two methodologies that can be used to determine a familys efc. Pay for college the expected family contribution efc. The department of education uses three different formulas to calculate an efc. Css expected family contribution college confidential. Home equity calculation for financial aid css profile fafsa. Yes, colleges that require the css profile form again, in addition to the fafsa will have 2 efc s expected family contributions to work with. These financial aid forms contain two different formula methodologies that are used to calculate your efc. Please check schools websites or contact the institution for more information.
As a noncustodial divorced parent, does student need to file the css before i get an email to enter my info. How schools determine what you are expected to pay. Both formulas which were designed by congress and by the. While just over 200 institutions use the css profile, the vast majority of colleges use the federallyadministered fafsa to calculate students efc. There is at least one and for many a second financial aid form for which you will have to input detailed information about your familys finances. The css profile is a questionnaire that is of a similar type to the fafsa. The basic theory is that the lower your efc, the bigger your financial aid award.
Jan 08, 2017 updated for 2017, this guide provides straightforward explanations of expected family contribution efc, needbased financial aid, merit aid and the two aid forms, the fafsa and css profile. It can drastically vary between the fafsa and css profile because the fafsa looks mostly at income, while the css goes a little more indepth into your financial. Proactive college planning and the efc what you need to. The css profile is used by over 400 colleges, and many require that students submit the css profile in order to be eligible for any type of aid at their institution.
After you submit your financial aid applications, the colleges and universities listed on your applications will receive your application data. We will not request the css noncustodial parent profile household b at this time. With this calculator, parents will want to obtain their efc using the federal and institutional formulas. Both applications use your financial info to determine your expected family contribution efc. The css profileperhaps an even bigger mystery than the fafsa. Your eligibility for federal financial aid has been determined according to the procedures outlined in the higher education act of. The efc formulas use the financial information students provide on their free application for federal student aid fafsa to calculate the efc. If you are applying or attending a school that requires the submission of the css profile for financial aid awards, you will need to provide the required information. I have been trying to find this value on my online css profile, but am unable to see any kind of report.
How expected family contribution for college is calculated. Aug 09, 2018 the css profile uses institutional methodology, which takes a more rounded look at a students financial situation, looking at factors such as home value, noncustodial parent income, and medical expenses. Both the department of education and the college scholarship service apply need analysis formulas to the information your financial aid applications supply. The efc is generated after completing the fafsa and it determines your needbased aid. How divorced parents pay for college capstone wealth partners. A handful of schools that require the css profile dont appear on this list, so be sure check each college or universitys financial aid webpage to find out. In our case, the gap between efc and net price is partly due to the fact that the fafsa divides your efc evenly between two collegeaged children, whereas private schools tend to assume its not evenly divided.
A lot of the questions and data on the profile will not actually be used in the calculation of your childs efc, such as asking for retirement assets values, for example. This is the amount of money families are expected to pay for their students to attend college. For example, the css profile requires listing primary home equity student owned 529 plans assessed at a higher rate. Filing the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa is the first step in applying for needbased financial aid for college. The efc is used in the united states student financial aid process to determine an applicants eligibility for needbased federal student aid. Efc, net cost and aid packaging the college financial lady.
Expected family contribution calculator college board. Finally, your efc is just one factor used by colleges to. The profile has a lot more financial information than the the fafsa does. Oct 01, 2016 the cssprofile uses the institutional formula to determine your efc and how much financial aid you are eligible to receive from the college you attend. The financial aid process can be overwhelming and it is important to understand the expected family contribution or efc. Estimate your expected family contribution efc toward the cost of college in two simple steps, and learn how the college financial aid system works using this straightforward guide that explains. Dec 23, 2019 eligibility for a pell is based on a familys expected family contribution, or efc, and is calculated on the fafsa. College planning alphabet soup fafsa, css, efc, coa. Get to know the css profile form many private colleges and universities also require you to complete the css profile, a form from the college scholarship service, an offshoot of the college board, the nice folks who bring you the sats. On the other hand, the college board decides what formula to use for the css profile, and this may change on an annual basis. Those colleges use the css profile to assess the students eligibility for the. The efc is the expected family contribution, which helps colleges calculate your financial needs for the school year. For example, the fafsa doesnt include any primary home equity. The css profile is frequently due significantly earlier than the fafsa as well.
Your efc, in simplest terms, is an estimate of what the schools expect you to pay. Efc is used to analyze a students need for financial aid using a simple formula that subtracts the students expected family contribution efc from a colleges total cost of attendance cost of attendance efc financial need. The css profile, like the fafsa, is available on october 1 each year. The efc calculator estimates the expected contribution of a students family for the year and helps gain insight into the students financial aid eligibility.
While just over 200 institutions use the css profile, the vast majority of colleges use the federallyadministered fafsa to. Yes, colleges that require the css profile form again, in addition to the fafsa will have 2 efcs expected family contributions to work with. Unfortunately, this can be a difficult process, as it takes 51 steps to get to your efc using the governments formula. Colleges and federal and state governments use the efc to calculate a students financial aid award. The css profile also considers special circumstances that affect your ability to pay for school. Because the efc formula for a dependent student uses parental data and the two formulas for independent students do not, the first step in calculating a students efc is to determine his or her dependency status. Under the efc formula for the fafsa and css profile, up to 47% of parents adjusted gross income is considered available for college funding.
Css profile participating institutions and programs. Formulas and applying for financial aid howstuffworks. Even schools that rely on the profile form may tweak the formula, for example, by. Here are three reasons why your financial aid award might be smaller than what you expected. Not all colleges use the efc as their main measure of student financial need.
Oct 28, 2019 css profile tips and tricks for divorced parents. Certain assets that are nonreportable on the fafsa are reportable on the css profile. The efc is a measure of your familys financial picture, and the fafsa and the css profile calculate this. Get to know the css profile form book summaries, test. Efc score calculations fafsa css profile consensus. Remember, this is a different formula than that used on the fafsa. An expected family contribution is a dollar figure that represents what financial aid formulas believe you should be able to pay for one year of a childs college education. Using a students efc to determine the need for financial aid. Why your financial aid award is smaller than you expected. Heres a summary of what you need to know about expected family contributions. The noncustodial parent will be completing their own profile. The college board has information on the process of completing the css profile 18442020524. Colleges will use the form to determine your expected family contribution efc.
Both formulas which were designed by congress and by the educational community respectively differ in important ways, but each estimates how much your family can provide toward educational expenses in the upcoming. Financial aid services higher ed services education. A second, institutional formula, is used by the college scholarship service profile aka css profile usually computes a higher efc than the federal formula because it includes significantly more financial inputs. There are two main aid forms used to calculate efc, each of which calculates the metric differently. If your child owns a 529 college savings account, it will be treated way more favorably on the fafsa than the profile.
The earlier you file, the better, as some aid available through each application is awarded on a firstcome, first served basis. Nov 28, 2014 2015 guide to fafsa, css profile, college financial aid and expected family contribution efc troy onink former contributor opinions expressed by forbes contributors are their own. Some schools are using the fafsa efc and others are using the css efc. Home equity is not assessed with the federal methodology fafsa, however it does contribute to your expected family contribution efc with the css profile and consensus 568 schools assessment maximum 1. Am i able to appeal to these schools and ask that they use my fafsa efc if i provide documentation from other schools. The css profile the federal and state governments as well as the colleges themselves each shell out a significant amount of money to help make education a bit more affordable.
Developed by the college board to manage the financial aid easily, efficiently, and costeffectively, css profile guarantees timely delivery of financial information, so you can award decisions with less strain on staff and resources. The governments formula is called the federal methodology and the css profile formula is called the institutional methodology. Whereas the fafsa formula is onesizefitsall and results in an expected family contribution, or efc, the css profile is more like a survey. A students contribution may increase efc at a css profile school. Formula a is for dependent students anyone who can be claimed. In fact, in the federal formula, the parents portion of the family contribution gets split equally 5050 among the number of students in college. Equitablefamilies with similar financial resources are asked to make similar contributions to postsecondary education. Its purpose is to determine each individuals expected family contribution efc.
The efc calculation is computed by using the familys financial data submitted on the free application for federal student aid fafsa and possibly the financial aid profile administered by the college board css profile. I wanted to explain how the efc is calculated so that you have a better understanding of your financial aid positioning. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. In this area, using proper strategy and planning you can make big gains in reducing your efc number. It is important to note that these efcs can be very different from one another. If you got through all of that and are still reading, heres your reward. All three of the efc formulas focus primarily on the assets and income. The efc calculator can help you estimate what your efc will be using either.
How fafsa calculates your efc college funding solutions. So, youve filed your fafsa form, and youve checked your student aid report to be. Many schools require students applying for early decision or early action to file the application by nov. When students apply to colleges, schools use the financial information they submit via the free application for federal student aid fafsa or college scholarship service css profile to calculate their expected family contribution efc.
Do you earn too much to qualify for college financial aid. Weve compiled the list of our most helpful resources to make it easier for you to apply. An expected family contribution is a dollar figure that represents what financial aid formulas believe a family should be able to pay for one year of a childs college education. As far as i can understand, it appears that reed uses the expected family contribution efc from the fafsa and css profile to determine the cost of the school. After you do so, you will receive an acknowledgment and a report estimating your institutional efc based on the data elements you provided on your css profile. Roughly 250 colleges, universities, and scholarship agencies require the css profile for financial aid, and you can find a pretty comprehensive list on the css profile site here. Colleges will subtract your efc from the cost of attendance to determine your financial need. The need analysis result form rnars19 displays the official fm, estimated fm, and im contributions based on the students current need analysis record. The im efc is calculated when a student files the css financial aid profile form. The css profile formula for counting assets takes into account several factors that the fafsa formula doesnt. So, remember that the fafsa uses the federal methodology and the cssprofile uses the institutional methodology to determine your efc, and they can produce a wildly. Institutional methodology im financial aid education.
Nov 29, 2017 make sure you submit your profile by the earliest deadline listed. Schools using the profile each have their own formulas for determine your institutional need based aid. There are some different rules between the fafsa federal method and the css profile institutional method. Understanding expected family contribution protective life. The federal efc from the fafsa will be used to determine eligibility for any federal and instate funds and the institutional efc from the css profile. You can also use the college boards net price calculator to estimate your net price at hundreds of colleges. Aug 09, 2018 with this calculator, parents will want to obtain their efc using the federal and institutional formulas. The calculator will produce one efc using the federal methodology that is linked to the free application for federal student aid.
Then you have to subtract out the additional items that the css profile asks as a part of the institutional methodology. The css profile is a much more involved aid form that will require more time and information gathering than the fafsa. Economically soundcalculations are developed with strong economic discipline, research and data based on the current economic experiences of families. The information provided on the fafsa or css profile will produce the students expected family contribution, better known as efc. When an im record is created either manually on the rnaprxxrnasuxx forms or via css profile data load prior to an fm record being created, the im record will be the students current. While all schools require a completed fafsa, the college scholarship service css profile is used mostly by private colleges as a financial aid supplement. Publications provides a step by step process for finding, assessing and selecting the best and least expensive school for your collegebound student using the power of this website. The total cost which includes tuition, fees, room and board, books and. The college board college admissions sat university. The fafsa application uses federal methodology, or fm, to determine an efc, and the css profile uses institutional methodology, or im, to determine a different efc. Apply for college financial aid css profile the college board. Expected family contribution efc plays a role in the amount of aid you can receive for both.
The federal efc from the fafsa will be used to determine eligibility for any federal and instate funds and the institutional efc. Upon receipt of your application, we will determine if you qualify for federal, state grants, institutional grants, federal workstudy, or federal student loans. Missiondriven organization representing over 6,000 of the worlds leading colleges, schools, and other educational organizations. Overall, the css profile calculates your efc differently than the.
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