What Does My EFC mean on my FAFSA?

Question

I justed recieved my report back, and my EFC said 00000. Can anyone please tell me what this means?

Answer 1

Expected Family Contribution: your family is not expected to pay any money towards your education.

Answer 2

EFC stands for "Expected Family Contribution"

Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is how much money your family is expected to contribute to your college education for one year.

Typically, the lower your EFC, the more financial aid you will receive. Factors such as family size, number of family members in college, family savings, and current earnings (information you provide on the FAFSA) are used to calculate this figure.  

Answer 3

I think it's expected family contribution.  So in your case, I think based on what you filled out, you may be receiving lots of aid.  But I don't know that it could be nothing, therefore you should probably contact your financial aid office to find out for sure.

Answer 4

It means that you are very poor and can expect close to the maximum in federal support.

Now, what is little known is that there are actually two EFC's: the one that comes on your report, and a second hidden one based on assets and what not. Having a zero primary EFC does not mean having a zero hidden EFC. But if you are really porr and have nothing, like me (I also have a zero EFC), you should expect to get a lot of aid.

Now, that doesn't mean you will get a lot of aid from your school, it just means you will get a sizible Pell grant (probably around 4 grand per year). There is a lot more you can get if your school wants to/can help:

There is the federal supplmental grants, reserved from really poor people. The trick is for every $.75 the government gives, the school has to match it with $.25. It costs them money, and they can be reluctant to chip in.

Another thing you might qualify for is a Perkins loan, which has better terms than the subsidized Stafford loan (which you will surely qualify for as well). With a Perkins, the school gaurentees the loan along with the goverment, and somehow it's better.

Hopefully your state government has some goodies for you, too, in the way of grants (free money).

Finally, they should kick in some kind of institutional aid (essentially the school cuts the sticker price of the education to help you out--or rather, earn four years of gaurenteed federal money off of you).

Remeber, loans you pay back, grants you keep.

If your school doesn't play ball, you should try to transfer to a school with better aid. Don't let them get you into huge debt becuase it will kill your dreams, and you'll go though all of this only to take a crappy desk job to pay back your loans. Keep dreaming.

The average kid that graduates leaves school about 18 grand in debt. You are poor. Talk to the direcotr of your aid office, and get an idea from about the type of debt you can expect to leave with. It should be much less that 18 grand.