FAFSA question

[paper1225]

This fall our oldest child will enter college. We did the FAFSA for her and our EFC is around 25xxx. Next year we have another child going to college too...........does this mean our EFC will be 125xx/child next year? Anyone have experience with this? Hoping for better numbers next year! TIA

 

[Trishtack]

No. The FAFSA is driven by income, assets, number in household, and number in college. There are some other factors but those are the primary. When you have two children in college, your EFC will lower. Assuming you made around the same in income and nothing other than the number in college changed then you would see a lower EFC.

To be eligible for federal grants your EFC needs to be below $5000. Most likely it will not lower that much based on just one mroe entering college.

 

[msmayor]

What I discovered now that I've had to fill out a FAFSA for my son (who starts college in the fall) is that with two in college, whatever the EFC is for one is about cut in half for each...its not exactly in half because each child's assets is factored in to the equation.

My daughter has more in savings than my son, so her EFC is slightly higher than my son's but overall its about half of what it would have been had she been the only one in college.

Hope that helps.