What is the Expected Family Contribution (EFC)?
The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) measures your family’s financial strength, and is used to determine your eligibility for federal student aid during one school year. Your EFC will be displayed on your Student Aid Report (SAR) after your FAFSA is processed. The information you reported on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used to calculate your EFC. The school uses the EFC to determine your federal student aid eligibility and financial aid award. Your EFC is not the amount that your family will have to pay for college nor is it the amount of federal student aid that you will receive. It is a number used by the school to calculate the amount that your family will be expected to pay for college and the amount of federal student aid you are eligible to receive.
The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) measures your family’s financial strength and is used to determine your eligibility for federal student aid during one school year. Your EFC will be displayed on your Student Aid Report (SAR) after your FAFSA is processed. The information you reported on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used to calculate your EFC. The school uses the EFC to determine your federal student aid eligibility and financial aid award. Your EFC is not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by your school to calculate the amount of federal student aid you are eligible to receive. For more information, you can visit the financial aid office at your school or look at Funding Education Beyond High School: The Guide to Federal Student Aid at studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html. Or, you can request a free copy of Funding Ed
Expected Family Contribution is the amount of money that the family is expected to contribute toward educational expenses from resources other than financial aid and is based on ability to pay. Factors used to determine a family’s contribution include: the previous year’s adjusted gross income, assets, size of family, and the number of individuals in the family attending college. The EFC is calculated using the information provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The expected family contribution or EFC is a figure that is a product of the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA). It represents the family’s contribution to a student’s education for calculating financial aid, most typically where free forms of aid such as grants and scholarships are concerned.
It is the amount a family can be expected to contribute toward a student’s college costs. Financial aid administrators determine an applicant’s need for federal student aid from the U.S. Department of Education and other sources of assistance by subtracting the EFC from the student’s cost of attendance (COA). The expected family contribution formula is used to determine the need for federal aid from programs such as the following: • Federal Pell Grants • Subsidized Stafford Loans (through the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan [DL] Program or through the Federal Family Education Loan [FFEL] Program) • Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs) • Perkins Loans • Federal Work-Study (FWS) All data used to calculate a student’s EFC comes from the information the student provides on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Students who applied for federal student aid in prior years may be eligible to re-apply by filing a Renewal FAFSA online. Applying for fed
