I have just received my Student Aid Report and it says my EFC is 0002. What does this mean?

Question

I know it is the expected family contribution but what does it being 00002 (sorry missed a zero the first time) actually mean for me?

Answer 1

efc is expected family contribution. this is compared to the cost of attendance which is a budget figure composed a fixed costs (stuff like tuition which is an exact amount) and estimated costs (which is stuff like books, room and board, transportation and personal expenses.
for example, let's say your school COA is 25,000 a year, the financial aid office uses this formula: COA-EFC=financial need.
in your case it would mean 25,000-2=24998. that means that your school's job is to try to meet that 24,998 figure.
your efc also determines how much of a pell grant you get. according to the new tables, you can get between 400-4000 for the year, half each semester depending on the cost of the school.

Answer 2

Your Expected Family Contribution is the amount that the government has determined you are *able* to pay for college in a given year. However, it should be emphasized that this is NOT necessarily the amount that you will be *required* to pay -- you might pay less or you might have to pay much, much more.

To phrase it another way, having a $2 EFC doesn't mean that all your educational costs (less $2) will be paid for by another source. Many FAFSA applicants mistakenly believe that a very low EFC means that the school or the government will cover the remainder. This, unfortunately, is not the case. Most colleges do not have the means to meet all their students' full need through scholarships, and almost all of the Federal awards have limits that often fall short of tuition costs.

Your low EFC *probably* means that you are eligible for most of the aid that your school has to offer for students in your program, including a Pell grant (if you are an undergrad), a Stafford Loan, a Perkins loan, an SEOG, Work-Study. Depending on where you live, you may also receive some aid from your state.

Many of these funds (except Pell -- the amounts for which are set by a specific table that compares your Cost of Attendance to your EFC) are allotted at the school's discretion. These days, there is never enough SEOG, Perkins, and FWS to go around, so it is uncommon for schools to award students to their maximum eligibility -- even to full-need students.

Nonetheless, you should take your EFC as a sign that plenty of people out there feel that you show a good deal of need. Search for need-based (and merit-based, if you have done well in school) scholarships anywhere you can: libraries, your former high school, your future college, clubs/associations near you, and internet search engines. You will probably need to cull funding from a number of sources as scholarships (small and large) are very competitive. Please be wary of scholarship scams, not the least of which is the claim that that there are "tons of unclaimed scholarships" just floating around out there. For information on this myth (and other scams), try reading these pages:

Answer 3

EFC is short for expected family individuals Contribution. The decrease the score is the more effective positive element for a college student. An EFC of 0 signifies that the anticipated family individuals contribution will be 0 or no longer some thing. It signifies that you're going to qualify for Pell factors, college scholarships from the school, and paintings be taught in case you checked the field.

Answer 4

This means the the Federal Government has determined by your FAFSA application that your family can contribute $2 of their own money to your education. Congrats!! My EFC has always been $0 so u are 2 up on me. This is their nice way of saying you qualify for the Federal pell grant and possibly other grants...GL

Answer 5

its expected family contibution it meaning is where you stand in the order of whos elgible for the pell grant and other federal aid the lower the number the higher to the top you are 0002 you shouldnt have any worries mine was 0000 the other answer you recieved isnt exactly correct it doesnt dtermine how much the max is 4050. for a fulltime student how many credits you take per semseter determines the amount of aid. just went through this have fun jumping through all the financial aid hoops.....

Answer 6

EFC is "Expected Family Contribution" or the amount they expect you to pay

Answer 7

it tells the school you plan on attending how much in funds you will receive