Your EFC is an index number that college financial aid staff use to determine how much financial aid you would receive if you were to attend their school. The information you report on your FAFSA form is used to calculate your EFC. The EFC is calculated according to a formula established by law.

What is my EFC?

Your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is an index number used to determine your eligibility for federal student financial aid. This number results from the financial information you provide in your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form. It’s reported to you on your Student Aid Report (SAR).

What is a good EFC number?

Any person with an EFC number at 0 will receive the maximum amount of student aid, while a number over 5273 will result in no aid at all. The numbers, and the amount awarded, fluctuate annually. The closer you can get to zero, the more federal dollars you’ll have to help pay for tuition and fees.

Why is my EFC so high?

If your family has accumulated wealth and investments, your EFC can be high, even if your family’s income is low. This includes checking and savings accounts, bonds and stocks, and even the student’s 529 College Savings Plan. Some kinds of financial assets do not count toward your EFC.

What EFC number qualifies for Pell Grant?

All the above factors—income and expenses—are used to calculate yet another number called an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). If your EFC is at or below $5,711 for the 2020-21 academic year, you will be eligible to receive the Pell Grant.

Is it better to have a higher or lower EFC?

Generally the lower a family’s EFC number, the more likely a student will receive financial aid. But an EFC’s significance is often more complicated. “There’s no ‘good’ EFC because it is a range.

What does a EFC of 6000 mean?

This means that you will not get sufficient financial aid at MOST schools to cover the Cost of Attendance minus your aid. In other words…there will be a “gap” which you will also need to fund.

Is an EFC of 0 good?

A student with an EFC of zero is considered a “full-need student.”

What is a big EFC?

If you have a high EFC, it means the feds think your family will be able to cover a bigger portion of your cost of a higher education —especially if your EFC is more than the cost of the college your student is attending. In those cases, the government assumes your family can afford all the costs of college.

Do parents have to pay EFC?

Families turn to financial aid. Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is how much a family is expected to pay out of pocket towards tuition. However, sometimes parents can’t afford to or even refuse to pay up for their child’s tuition, which results in the child not being able to cover up the EFC.