I got a 20 on my Financial Aid for the Expected Family Contribution. Can anyone help me find what it means???

Question

I am a student in a CSU to be specific its at Cal Poly Pomona. I am a second year student. Last year i got a 0.

Answer 1

A 20 is an very low score on the EFC scale, which ranges from 0 up to 99999. Some people will tell you that the EFC is a dollar amount, but if you read the FAFSA website carefully, you will find this excerpt:

"The EFC is not the amount of money that your family must provide. Rather, you should think of the EFC as an index that colleges use to determine how much financial aid (grants, loans or work-study) you would receive if you were to attend their school."

As that paragraph explains, the financial aid office at your college will use your EFC score to determine what types of financial aid you are eligible to receive.

An EFC score of 20 represents what's known as "exceptional" need. Applicants with exceptional need qualify for "need-based" forms of financial aid, in addition to other forms that are available to all students.

Unfortunately, if you are just receiving your EFC score now, you've really procrastinated, and missed the all-important "priority aid deadline" for both your school and your state. Some forms of need-based aid are distributed only to applicants who meet that priority deadline, so those funds have all been allocated for this year. Next year, be sure that you complete the FAFSA early, so you can take advantage of all of the aid that you are qualified to receive.

Despite missing the priority deadline, you are still qualified to receive a Pell Grant and a subsidized Stafford loan this year, both of these are forms of need-based aid. If you are a full time student, your Pell award for this year should be $4681, which will be paid to your school in two equal payments of $2340.50, one in the fall semester, and one in the spring. Your school will apply those funds to your student account.

If you choose to do so, you will also be able to borrow up to $5500 from the federal government's Stafford loan program - the best educational loan that any student can hope to find. The first $3500 of that amount will be in the form of a subsidized Stafford loan, which simply means that the government will pay the interest that accrues on your loan from the day the loan is disbursed until you graduate from school and begin repayment. That will potentially save you several hundred, if not thousands of dollars.

Good luck to you - I hope that helped.