Know Your EFC

One of the tricky things about financial planning for college is that you won't know what your college bills look like until you see the financial aid packages being offered to you. Colleges often don't share that information until spring, just a couple of months before you need to let schools know whether you're accepting their admissions offers or not.

Every year, there are applicants (and parents) who are unpleasantly surprised by the limited amount of financial aid available to them. Some applicants even find themselves having to turn down admissions offers from their dream schools because they can't come up with the amount of money needed to cover their Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

One way to avoid finding yourself in this situation is to get an idea before you even apply to schools of what your EFC will be. Several organizations offer free, online EFC calculators, including:

The College Board (apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)

Sallie Mae (www.collegeanswer.com/paying/est_efc/efc_index.jsp)

The U.S. Department of Education (www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/)

Having a ballpark estimate of your EFC ahead of time may not help you find the money you would need to attend your dream schools, but it can give you an idea of what you need to prepare yourself for. It can also give you the time you need to come up with additional savings or loans to cover a financial aid shortfall. And, if worse comes to worst, knowing your EFC up front can help you avoid wasting your time on applications to schools that would cost more to attend than you want to pay.

Click here to return to the Feature Content home page.