11580 EFC, is the government crazy?

Question

I make 22,000 and my "parent", since I'm oh so "dependent", makes 40,000.... pretty middle working class right?

Well, with an ESTIMATED( i haven't recieved the official one)EFC of 11580, how much does the goverenment expect one parent to help me with? 11 grand???

I haven't spoken with either of my parents in years!

I hope I have misunderstood something about this whole process.

can someone give me some light at the end of this tunnel? because so far it looks like im going to be stacked with loans....

Answer 1

It's less because of what your parent makes and more because you make so much (in comparison to your average student just entering college, which would be a 17-18 year old just leaving high school). What a student makes in a year is assessed at a much higher rate than what a parent makes. The government believes that if you are a dependent you should be living at home so to make 22k while at home is, in their eyes, a lot and they would expect you (but also your parent) to have a good amount of savings for college with a combined income of about 60k.

Answer 2

There are a couple of things you can do to double check this EFC.  First be sure your "number in household" is correct.  

This number would include you (even if you don't live with your parents) and your parents (or a step parent if they are married) and siblings who live with your folks or other siblings who are also college students.  This is prob the most common mistake and also this number makes a huge difference in calculating your efc. If this number is correct you need to understand the EFC formula.

The reason why your efc is so high is not because your parents income is so high (because it's not), it's because YOUR income is so high. Generally HALF of what a student makes is automatically calculated into their EFC.  Earn 22K a year, your EFC will be automatically be a minimum of 11,000.  A higher EFC than that would be your parents contribution to the formula.  (this is prob an  oversimplification, but you get the idea).  

If you had earned no income last year and were just going on your folks info, your efc would be a complete different story. 00580 maybe, maybe not.

This is why I so many folks are sadly disappointed when they FINALLY don't have to report parents income to truly reflect their financial independence when they turn 24 and still don't get grants.  The reason being, those who are truly financially independent earn too much to get grant money.

Hope this helps.  Also be aware EFC is NOT the amount you will have to pay for school.  It is just a code the school uses to determine what kinds and how much fin aid you will get.  The best way to determine how much you will have to pay is to look at the schools tuition rates.  good luck.

Answer 3

The first thing I would recommend, since your "parent" isn't one that you are close with, would be a dependency override. You can go to your financial aid office and fill out the forms. There are a lot of questions however when I filed mine my EFC went from bout 5000 to 0. Also if they say you cant get the dependency override theres nuthing you can do this year other find alternative funding for your education until next year when you can put a grandmother or older relative (someone receiving SSI or has very low income) and put them on your fafsa as your guardian and your EFC will be 0...if you need anymore help feel free to contact me back...I've mastered the in's and out's of collegiate funding