NASFAA Mention: FAFSA Says How Much You Can Pay for College. It’s Often Wrong.
"Like millions of other parents, Julie Phipps filled out the federal form last November that determined her college-bound daughter was eligible for financial aid. She also learned how much the federal government figured her family could contribute to the bill: $14,000," The New York Times reports.
"That figure, known as the expected family contribution, was generated immediately after she completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. But with every dollar from their solidly middle-class income already accounted for, Ms. Phipps, 53, said she and her husband, Andy, were stunned at what they were expected to pay.
That was just the start.
The real shock came later, when they learned that the expected contribution was only about half of what their daughter’s chosen school expected the family to pay.
'If we were paying our expected family contribution, we would be thrilled,' said Ms. Phipps, of South Portland, Maine. 'But we are paying twice our expected family contribution, so it means absolutely 100 percent nothing.'
Now that the latest FAFSA is out — it became available on Oct. 1 — millions of families are plugging in their numbers. The form is the first step to unlocking any potential federal financial aid, including grants, loans and work-study jobs, as well as aid from states and some colleges.
But it also generates their expected family contribution, or E.F.C. — a number that can easily be misleading. It’s often higher than many households can afford, and yet in many cases, like the Phipps family’s, it’s still not enough.
'For a long time, there has been this growing chasm between the need-analysis formula and accurately reflecting a student and their family’s ability to pay for college,' said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which has members at nearly 3,000 schools."
NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.
Publication Date: 11/18/2019
