Expected Family Contribution - EFC

Categories: Insurance, Retirement

A fancy name given to the chore chart you have hanging up in the kitchen that lets you know when it's your night to do the dishes.

Also, it's a set of calculations a lot of colleges use to determine the amount of financial aid they make available to students.

A family with an incoming freshman discloses its financial info (parent's income, amount they have saved up for college, etc.) and the numbers get plugged into an algorithm. This equation spits out the expected family contribution, a figure indicating how much the freshman's family can afford to pay in terms of tuition and other college expenses.

From there, the school can decide whether they're willing to fill in the rest with loans, scholarships, or grants. Or...they might have their financial department issue a form letter detailing the benefits of community college.

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