EFC a little high?

[pwrpfgrl]

I just finished my FAFSA and my EFC is over 10,000!! Dang! Do they really expect you to have saved almost half of your take home salary? Am I the only one who's EFC is way more than they could have saved over the last year? I feel like I'm being punished for taking a few years off and working in a real job.

For those in the same boat - how are you planning on paying this (assuming you, like me, blew all your money on rent and food)?.

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[Macken]

Hey pwrpfgrl, don't feel bad: my EFC is over $20,000!

I have no idea how this all works. I work in a career I've had for a long time, making decent money, but nobody seems to realize that that's going to be GONE when I start med school.

I think the EFC has more to do with whether or not you're eligible for subsidized vs. unsubsidized Stafford loans.

I can't wait to find out because there's no fricking way I can afford to pay more than a pittance toward my med school tuition.

Isn't this fun....?

 

[pwrpfgrl]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one in this boat! Anyone else with an EFC bigger than they can handle?

 

[DRNickiTay]

Every year my EFC is over $30,000 because my husband works. I still qualify for all the FA I want. I am worried though that i will not qualify for deferment in residency though!

 

[Zoobaby]

Yeup, mine was $11,000 and I'll have about nothing when I start. My fin aid person told me that my EFC should not be an issue.

For example :

State school budget = $35k
My EFC = $11k
My need = 35-11 = $24k

The subsidized loans are based on need. Since I have 24k in need and the max subsidized loan is $8500, I'll be getting every penny of that. The rest ($35k-$8500=$26,500) will come in the form of unsubsidized fed loans which are not based on need.)

This is oversimplified, obviously, but I think you'll be ok. I freaked out too, but my fin aid person calmed me down.

If I choose to go to a private school where the budget is $55k, well, that make things a bit different because (presumably) I'd get the maximum in federal loans and still have need....

LOADS of fun!

 

[GoodMonkey]

joining the club of EFC>my bank account

for the record: 1) my EFC is around $10K. 2)my parents aren't contributing anything. they may help me move, i.e. drive the uhaul, but that's about it.

i have been working full time for about 4years. the only $ i have saved is hopefully going towards a small, modest vacation before i go to school and towards $ for somewhere to live/the move itself.

bleh.

 

[DW]

i got an EFC of 4186. This was the first "non zero" EFC I've ever gotten. I hope they realize that ~4K in disposable income I would supposedly have after working last year more or less all went towards applying to medical school

 

[Renny]

MY dad is a financial aid officer. He says that your EFC will come down next year when you are no longer working! So take heart.Renny

 

[Rampant]

My EFC is Zero... I'm curious about what kind of aid to expect, all things considered.. I'd love to see some grants, rather than massive loans.. Anyone know how this works...

 

[Macken]

Thanks for all the info from everybody. This financial aid cr*p is driving me nuts! <g> I did freak out when I saw the EFC come back but everyone's input has helped calm me down.

Thanks!

 

[pwrpfgrl]

I feel better too. I guess no matter what, there will be some loans to help cover everything. It's still scary when your expected to fork up that much $$. The only way I could come up with it is to either

1)start stripping - which wouldn't work because i'm pretty shy
2)become an escort - also not good, don't want a pimp
3)deal drugs - i wouldn't even know where to start
4)sell my eggs - i'm still considering this if the loans don't come though!

I'm like you, GoodMonkey, my parents are definitely not interested in helping me financially (but they do smile and nod and tell me everything will be alright when I cry about FA stuff )

ok, i'm just going to take a deep breath and chill out until I hear back from my financial aid office. this is no fun.

 

[sleepyhouse]

my EFC is zero too...anyone know what to expect with this in terms of aid?

 

[rebaj]

so glad someone asked! My EFC is about $9K, based off of a 26K income. (In NYC!) Nope, I won't have the cash. I figured my FA person would help me figure out a way to suck it up in loans - not a great solution, I realize, but since it is a one-year problem as my income disappears in school, not financially fatal either.

Regarding small savings; I was hoping I could keep that. Forget vacations; as a self supporting adult with poor parents, I need a 'cushion'; god forbid some type of emergency where I needed money fast, or needed to support myself for a short time while not working. Would it kill them to let me keep a couple thousand in my bank account so that if I need a root canal or I get run over by a car I won't be running up my credit card debt in addition to my loans?

 

[paean]

Regardless of your EFC, you can get loans, federal up to 38,500 and beyond that private loans. The maximun loan amount is set by your school, so if they say the student budget is 28K, you take all that out in Federal loans, and if they say 51K, you take out the max federal plus 11,500 private.

If your EFC is 0, you are in the same boat with almost all single medical students in their 2nd year and beyond. Whether you get grants or loans with good terms really depends on your school. Unlike undergrad, many schools will expect you to take the whole, or almost the whole amount out in loans. So it's not an entrance to a magical club with big grants as the door prize. At UCSF (entering with an EFC of 0) I received about 2500 in grants, and have taken about 30K in loans. The only difference between me and someone with an EFC of 10K is I got an 800 federal loan reserved for the poorest students, and I got a small grant.

Regarding savings, you absolutely can keep a small cushion, but when you fill out the FAFSA, it will count against you every year. So you may have to take out loans to cover the amount you have in savings, and depending on whether your student budget is over or under 38,500, they may be at poor interest rates. Although if you read my response to the 0 EFC question, you may have already realized that you would be taking those loans out regardless. For necessary medical care and health insurance that would cover you if you were hit by a car, your student budget should already include money designated for those expenses, and you can get a loan increase to cover medical expenses above the amount the initially offer. So it wouldn't necessarily be on credit cards.

 

[carrigallen]

So, rich students who are coming straight from undergrad get an EFC of 0. Meanwhile, poor peeps with a skimpy salary will get an EFC of one-half their income. Crazy...


My salary is 22,000, I've been working for 1 year since graduation. I'm expecting my EFC to be ~6k...hoping for some institutional aid, since my remaining parent is widowed and disabled. It would suck to get a bunch of unsubsidized loans.

 

[pocwana]

hate to burst some bubbles here, but for 2nd year, we'll have the income from the 1st half of this year to contribute to efc. blah.

 

[DrZippy2b]

Ok. Just finished my FAFSA. My EFC is 45,875 Not sure whether I should laugh or cry.

Can I still get loans? Unsub?

That'll teach us to work so hard.

 

[tedstriker]

Zippy, are you married? Clearly they think you've got cash somewhere.

Don't worry, though; interest rates for private loans are ridiculously low and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

My EFC was 5,261. I earned a shade under $20K last year, and have less than $5K in the bank. I wish I had more in the bank actually, so I could take out less money in loans--much as I like to convince myself otherwise, loans aren't free money

 

[maysqrd]

I hope I can share a little info with some of you that are worried about your EFC's. First, the federal loans are split into two, subsidized and unsubsidized. The EFC that you show will be subtracted from your school's budget that they allow for you. So let's say your school budgets $49K (which is likely for private schools in high cost of living areas). If your EFC is over that amount then you will not qualify for the subsidized loan money from the feds. If you EFC is below that amount then you will qualify for the subsidized amount, up to the $8500 limit per year.

The unsubsidized loans are available regardless of your EFC. The schools and the fed look at this as and they realize that you may not work while going to school in the calendar year that your EFC covers and so you may need to borrow that amount instead of taking it out of a paycheck. This be available for up to $30K per year.

So take DrZippy2b for example. Her EFC is 45,875. Her school may budget $49000. Subtract the EFC from the budget and she will be eligible for $3125 in subsidized loans. She can then take another $30K in unsubsidized and she will have a total of $33125 borrowed from the feds next year. This number is still below the $49K budgeted and so if we subtract $33125 from the $49K, she will have $15,875 that she still has to cover somehow. This is where the alternative lenders and loans come in. She can now borrow from one of the private lenders this remaining amount (it will be all unsubsidized and interest will accrue while in school but not by much more than what the feds are charging for their unsub loans unless you have bad credit or high balances on other unsecured credit lines).

I have heard of some lenders that will even give loans outside of what the schools budget. BankOne is one I think, and they will go up to $30K per year but you must have a co-signer.

The only thing that everyone should check is the aggregate limits for loans. If you will need $60K per year to cover your mortgage and tuition, etc. You will need to plan ahead and make sure you are budgeting wisely because the aggregate loan limits for undergrad and med schools combined for BOTH fed and private lenders without a cosigner is $220,000.

This puts me in a bad spot because my school will cost $50K per year and I am already $46K in debt for undergrad (private school). If I add up what I need for my budget, my aggregate total is $250,000. Obviously, I will need to have a cosigner by my 4rth year or I won't be able to borrow the last $30K that I need.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Am I looking at things wrong, or does FAFSA punish people who save by double-counting? For example, the govt looks at my husband's salary and says, You can afford to pay X amount. If we anticipate this and put money aside so that we can pay X, then the govt says, Oh, look! You have savings, too! Then you can actually afford to pay X+Y. And why isn't there a place for me to indicate that my husband owes $20k in student loans?

 

[Ginza]

Hey there pwrpfgrl...I hate to burst your bubble but the price for selling our eggs has definitely gone down over the past few years (trust me, I have been looking into it!) Apparently fellow poor female medical students have caught on dammit!

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone here. My EFC was definitely more than the $23 I have in my bank account right now. Oy. I've been trying to save money, but then I have days like today when I splurge. I actually bought a bagel WITH cream cheese at Dunkin Donuts this morning. What was I thinking?

 

[DrZippy2b]

tedstriker: yup. Married to a professional. Both working with comfortable salaries. No kids. We had to count all tax deferred 401K $$ other untaxed income (that we won't have next year) and a lot of other things.

MAYSQRD: Did I tell you how awesome and wonderfully thorough you are!?!? Thank you for explaining. It definitely helped. I am so glad we are going to be classmates in the fall!

We are planning to only take out loans to cover tuition/fees. Everything else we are planning to cover (books, living expenses, etc). But I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get any loans because of such a high EFC. It is good to know that's not the case.

 

[phd2b]

Damn, I have over a $30K EFC! I'll expect to have another $15-20K EFC next year b/c I will have worked through July of this year! And, if I am really 'clever' and work the summer after MS-1 and make $20-30K, well, guess what, my EFC will be high again...Oh well...the cost of money isn't ever going to be much lower than this...

Good luck.

 

[whatfun]

My EFC is ~ 11,000. Luckily, I have saved quite a bit of money (I don't have a car, pack lunches, etc.) I think the EFC only becomes a serious issue if it's really high. As long as you qualify for the sub. and unsub. stafford loans, you can borrow the max of those each year for whatever. Also, as already mentioned before, grants are extremely few and far between in med school. Therefore, plan on borrowing alot.

I do have to say, though, all this financial info made me seriously reconsider where I'm going. I'm deciding between a private and state school. I liked the private school a little more, but I just got a prelim aid letter from the private school and realized I'd have to borrow almost 50,000 to pay for my first year alone, compared to 27,000 for my state school! Also, since many schools' endowments have taken serious hits in the last two years, I would imagine any scholarships/special grants offered by schools before will be even more hard to come by now.

As a result, I've decided on my state school. Why pay so much more???

 

[SoCal]

As far as lenders are concerned...my school seems to reccommend the Access Group (for Stafford loans and Alternative loans). I have done some research...and have found lenders that do not charge an origination fee. Is this the only thing I should be looking at? Would anyone NOT reccommend the Access Group? Thanks

 

[kumar28]

hey, which lenders don't charge the origination fee???

 

[SwingDoc]

First, I want to say thanks to everyone that has responded to this post with detailed knowledge on the subject. It's VERY much appreciated.

My question has to do with the worst case scenario. I know that government student loans are forgiven - if one- shall I say, "takes an Earth bath," or in other words "bites the big one". What about the private loans, especially those that need a cosigner???

Thanks in advance

 

[Kirk]

If you have a co-signer for a loan and you die, the cosigner is still liable for paying off the loan. (Unless the loan specifically states that it is forgiven, and most private loans will not have that clause.)

If you are concerned, get a life insurance policy? For a 28 year old with no health problems, $500,000 costs me around 20 bucks a month. $100,000 is around 10 a month. This is term life insurance, and the rate is set for 15 years. After that you may have to renegotiate the policy, but that is a long ways off. An insurance policy is definitely a good idea if you are married, or have any big bills like a house.