Daniel Barkowitz | April 01, 2008
"REPOST: Singing in Four Part Harmony -- Or What Makes up your EFC"
Hi all!
So, due to popular demand I am replaying some of the posts that explain how we determine your family contribution. Where appropriate I will be updating the information with changes made in the last several years, including changes made by our newly announced financial aid initiatives. I will title each of these posts with the prefix "REPOST" so that you are aware of both the fact that much of the information is repeated, although there are some changes in the post itself.
Hope this is helpful and feel free to ask any questions:
Here we go!
I love to sing.It helps that I sing fairly well (or at least I like to think I do), but I do love to sing.
As for what I sing, it varies from Broadway show-tunes to Abba to Air to Eminem (I have a pretty eclectic taste in music).
And I direct musical theater! This year, I am working on a massive show at my Temple which will feature over 80 performers from Kindergartners to 12th graders. We rehearse almost every Sunday through the year with our production scheduled for June 1.
Last Sunday in rehearsal, I was thinking about what to put on this blog as we were working on harmonies for one particularly difficult song, and it hit me! The perfect image! Singing in 4 part harmony.
So why is it the perfect metaphor? Well, just like in music you need 4 parts to make up the whole (S, A, T, B), in financial aid, you need four parts to make up the whole as well (PC-I, PC-A, SC-I, SC-A).
So, enough with the metaphor (I feel like I have beat it to death) and on to what I mean.
The Expected Family Contribution is made up of four components:
- Parent Contribution from Income
- Parent Contribution from Assets
- Student Contribution from Income
- Student Contribution from Assets
(Do note that if you are from a divorced or separated family, there may also be a Non-custodial contribution from income and assets -- see here for more information on who is considered to be your parent).
What I thought I would do in the coming days is spend a little bit of time on each of these 4 components and answer some questions about each one, providing some information that will help you understand how we conduct our business.
But for today, I need to tackle one issue before we can even get started, and that is the question of who is considered to be an independent student, therefore not requiring a parental contribution of any variety.
Remember that before, I explained how there were really two different formulas, one used by the Federal Government at all schools to determine Federal aid, and one used by a number of colleges (including MIT) to determine how to award their own aid. Also, remember that I said that while the Federal rules were pretty standard across the board, there were many variations in the Institutional formula (and this year even more variation in these rules has been introduced with the announcements by several of our peer institutions that they are making wholesale changes to their formulae).
So, let me tackle the Federal rules first. If you meet any of the following 7 criteria, then you are considered to be an independent student (for Federal purposes only) and do not need to fill out parental information on the FAFSA (although some colleges may ask you to):
- You will be 24 by January 1, 2009.
- You are an orphan or a ward of the court.
- You are married.
- You are a graduate student.
- You are a veteran of the United States armed forces.
- You have a legal dependent of your own (other than a spouse) who lives with you.
- You have a legal dependent of your own who doesn't live with you, but for whom you provide more than 1/2 of their support.
If any of these are true, then you are an Independent student for Federal aid purposes.
For institutional aid, the rules may be different. At MIT, we only consider as independent undergraduate students, those students whose parents are deceased. We believe that a parent's obligation to assist with a student's undergraduate college cost doesn't end just because the student turns 24 or gets married. For our funding in these cases, we require parental information. (If you are curious about how other colleges might handle this, you should contact their financial aid office).
Also, it is important to remember that our process measures a family's ability to pay, not willingness to pay, so whether a parent is or is not willing to make a contribution has no bearing to either the Federal or the institutional formulas.
That is not to say that there are never situations where we would waive parental contributions (how is that for a double negative?), but they are extremely rare and handled on a case-by-case basis. The issues would need to be egregious for us to consider them. You should talk to your financial aid counselor if you feel your situation might qualify to be considered this way.
Look next for a beginning breakdown of the parental contribution from income.
Let me know if you have any questions on this information, and I will attempt to answer them on this post!
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The author has filed this entry in the "Financial Aid" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
(Please note that comments are closed after 30 days to reduce spam.)
love =)
Posted by: anon on April 1, 2008 07:50 PM
What percentage of my parents' saved assets are expected to be contributed to my college education as a part of the parental contribution from assets?
Posted by: Karen '12 on April 1, 2008 07:52 PM
Thank you, this was helpful, but I have a question. My financial aid award had no mention of any EFC, and I only got 2 small federal loans. Does this mean that my EFC shows that I can afford the whole tuition, or should some EFC be listed on my letter?
Thanks!
Posted by: jess '12 on April 1, 2008 07:55 PM
Karen, look to the blog for a post on this question coming soon (or go back to a previous post here).
If we do not list an EFC it is because the amount of the EFC is greater than our cost of attendance, and we don't really feel that it is helpful to you to say, "Hey, your family can afford $X more than our cost of education." If you are particularly interested in knowing the number, you can contact your aid officer...
Posted by: Daniel Barkowitz on April 1, 2008 08:42 PM
As a random note, isn't the parenthetical in number 6 covered by number 3? In which case, it could be omitted.
Posted by: David '12 on April 1, 2008 08:57 PM
Getting picky are we David? *smile*
Actually the qualifier is necessary (or at least the Feds think it is) as this language is mostly copied word for word from the FAFSA.
Posted by: Daniel Barkowitz on April 1, 2008 09:48 PM
oh well stanford just gave me 40k. That'll do just fine. :D
Posted by: MIT reject :( on April 2, 2008 02:49 AM
So, just one question on my part here:
What happens to all those students who got an offer of admission, but no (or not enough) FinAid because their parents are not willing to support them?
I know one guy who is in this state and will probably have to either defer for two years to earn the money, or decline. And I know a prospect who wants to apply but knows that this will probably become an issue.
Luckily I am not in this situation (I didn't get an offer, but also my one parent (mum) is willing to support me fully but has no resources, so FinAid would be fine), but I am wondering if there is something the others can do if they are in that situation?
Jerome
Posted by: Jerome Baum on April 2, 2008 08:10 AM
You may have already answered this, but if you didn't get any financial aid but you still can't afford the school, and another EFC (collegeboard) shows that your EFC is actually less that the cost that MIT will cost you, can you bring this EFC to your meeting with financial aid at CPW/will this have an effect? What I really want to know is, is it possible to get financial aid after you have already been denied financial aid (even if another EFC shows that you need more money to go to MIT)?
Thank you.
Posted by: KT ' 12 on April 2, 2008 03:35 PM
Question:
How do you file an appeal if we would like to? If my parents set up an appointment with a financial aid officer during CPW, would that replace filing an appeal?
Thanks!
Posted by: Jess on April 4, 2008 06:54 PM
Will receiving outside scholarships hurt us in essence if we do not receive any loans? I have heard that you will deduct this money from the grants you give us in our financial aid packages. Is this true? How does this work?
Posted by: Class of 2012 on April 5, 2008 02:39 AM
I'm already extremely pleased to get my financial aid offer but I have a question:
I am a US citizen abroad, as my family lives in China and our US permanent address is really just for filling out forms. In this case, why would I be expected to make a contribution? (I have a travel allowance and a student contribution included in my package)
Thanks
Posted by: Joan '12 on April 5, 2008 11:29 PM
Can you address how a parent's marital status and age impact the parent EFC? I am a single parent of one child. (She's only 9; I'm trying to begin learning about all this early!) I'll be 64 when she enters college. Will those facts impact the parent EFC at MIT (or any school for that matter)? Also, in my situation, home equity becomes problemmatic because I won't have enough earning years to repay equity taken out of the house. Will that reality be taken into consideration by most schools?
Your thoughts?
Posted by: Noreen on April 24, 2008 08:31 PM
Jerome:
I can't answer MIT's policy, but I can answer for my own experience. My parents didn't fill out any financial aid paperwork for my first two years in school. I ended up taking two years off in the middle of my sophomore year to pay off my third term. MIT Financial Aid was able to help me get a Tech loan for my first year, but they were not willing to consider me for grants or subsidized loans without my parents' financial information.
Once it was clear that I was going to have to pay off my sophomore fall term before I could register for more classes, MIT was very helpful (Liz Barnes is awesome) in arranging a very friendly payment plan that I could support while working and living in nearby Somerville. It all worked out---and eventually I even got my parents' paperwork and grants that let me finish my SB---but it was a hard road.
As another anecdote, another classmate that fall was also returning to school after a long hiatus. He was married, 30, and his parents were retired, so he was (obviously) paying his own way through school, but MIT still calculated his EFC based on his parents' income.
There are a number of alumni who occasionally discuss this problem, and aren't sure what to do about it other than refuse to give to MIT until the financial aid system is made more fair to independent students.
Posted by: Kat on April 25, 2008 10:37 AM
