How does the Department of Education determine my “Expected Family Contribution (EFC)”?
Your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is the number that’s used to determine your eligibility for federal student aid. While the EFC is considered the amount of money a family is expected to contribute towards a student’s college costs, the EFC is not the amount of money that your family must provide. Rather, you should think of the EFC as an index that colleges use to determine how much financial aid you would receive if you were to attend their school. The Central Financial Aid Office uses your EFC to determine the need for aid for the following types of federal student financial aid: Federal Pell Grant, Academic Competitiveness Grant, TEACH Grant and Stafford Subsidized Loans.
