hey guys it's Tina what is an EFC I just wanted to get on here and talk for a few minutes about
the expected Family Contribution because I'm getting a lot of questions about that this
time of year so when you go in and fill out the FAFSA and the government does all their federal
methodology on all of the income and ask that information that you put on the FAFSA they are
going to come up with what's called an expected Family Contribution or EFC and you'll actually
see what that is on the confirmation page right after you submit your FAFSA so this is when a
lot of parents panic they see an EFC of something like $47,000 or $50,000 and I start getting a lot
of phone calls so what this means is that based on the information you provided on the FAFSA the
government expects that as a family you can contribute that amount towards your child's
education for that particular year so the current FAFSA you're filling out now the EFC figure that
you get is the one that will refer to the 2021 school year now I know this is scary and this is
when a lot of parents panic because if they have an EFC of $50,000 and they're thinking there's no
way I can pay $50,000 towards my child's education it's scary but what I want to say is don't take
this number to heart now while this number is going to be accurate at a number of colleges
when you get the financial aid package back at other colleges it might not and the amount of
money you're expected to contribute could actually be less the F to the EFC is just a guideline that
the college is used to determine your financial aid award package and then a lot of other factors
are taken into consideration not just information from the FAFSA but also information from the CSS
profile if you needed to submit that and then if you have special circumstances within your
family so let's say your income changed for 2019 and is going to be less than 2018 it's really
important that you notify the financial aid office of this because they could use your 2019 income to
determine what your expected Family Contribution is and of use it in place of your 2018 income so
again a number of things are going to be taken into consideration when determining an EFC it's
not a be all and all but it is a guideline that colleges use you know to kind of figure out how
much money to award families so don't panic but at the same time you know it's a good indicator
of you know the fact that you're going to have to contribute sometimes a significant amount of
money to the college but remember there are things you can be doing now to to make that financial aid
picture a little bit better when the EFC comes in one of that one of those things is applying
for outside scholarships there are a ton out there there are scholarships for not just merit not just
financial need but based on a number of different factors the state you live in the academic degree
program you're studying certain interests and abilities that you have and unfortunately this
is where I see a lot of families drop the ball they do not take the time and effort to apply
for individual scholarships because it's tedious and it's overwhelming which I totally understand
but by applying for scholarships now on a weekly basis throughout this whole year you're actually
putting yourself in a really good position to get additional free scholarship money which is
separate than the FAFSA and separate than the CSS profile the other little piece of information that
you should be aware of is once you get your financial aid award you can actually appeal
it directly through the financial aid office a lot of families are not aware of this there's
a certain and specific way that you need to write an appeal letter it needs to be very
humble and have some important components to it you don't want to write it like you're dealing
with a used car salesman but that's another option that can actually help you get awarded
some additional free money so don't panic when you get the EFC but that just kind of gives you
an idea of what it is what the college is use for and it doesn't mean that's exactly
what you're going to have to pay it's what you could have to pay it some colleges while other
colleges maybe it's not going to be that much so anyways just wanted to do a short video on
remember I'm here to help with any thing that you might need I help with scholarships and
any part of the college planning and financial aid process be sure to go check out my website
www.sunbeltchryslerjeepdodge.com