Blah Forum

[flowylime]

Since you're in a graduate-level program, you are considered independent in law school by the FAFSA and you are not required to submit parental info. Some schools have institutional financial aid forms or require need access to get that parental information from you though, and they can adjust your EFC accordingly.

[ShibaDan]

My EFC 1L year was a number that was close to the COA, yet I received the full amount of subsidized Stafford loans, and even qualified for several thousand dollars in Perkins loan funding.

What gave you the idea that an EFC in excess of the COA would prevent you from receiving subsidized loans? The way your EFC factors into financial aid eligibility is more complex that simply COA-EFC=Aid Package, so drawing conclusions about your eligibility based solely on your EFC is not likely to result in an accurate picture of your eligibility for subsidized loans.

I thought there was no perkins for LS?

[danidancer]

My EFC 1L year was a number that was close to the COA, yet I received the full amount of subsidized Stafford loans, and even qualified for several thousand dollars in Perkins loan funding.

What gave you the idea that an EFC in excess of the COA would prevent you from receiving subsidized loans? The way your EFC factors into financial aid eligibility is more complex that simply COA-EFC=Aid Package, so drawing conclusions about your eligibility based solely on your EFC is not likely to result in an accurate picture of your eligibility for subsidized loans.

I thought there was no perkins for LS?

Depends on the school. So far one school I've been admitted to has given me Perkins in addition to the Stafford.

[ShibaDan]

Interesting, you'd think there'd be more out there about it. Must not be too common?

[FAprofessional]

Gentleman all rules related to EFC and how it applies is all coming from the department of education. It has nothing to do what your major is. In relation to age is also based on fino coming from the department of education which states if you are under the age of 24 and are not married and do not have dependents you are considered a "dependent" in the eys of the department of education (DOE) regardless if you live with them or not. To answer the original question, if your EFC is higher than the cost of attendance you DO NOT qualify for subsuduzed loans. The definition listed is " A NEED based loan..... which means if you EFC or expected family contribution is higher than the cost of attendance you wont get subsuduzed because in theory your family can afford to "contribute" to your education. I also saw another post that the EFC was zero and that poor people get better EFC's. the way it works is the lower the EFC the more funding you get in terms of Grants which is what the EFC is for, therefoe the lowest EFC being 0 gives you everything you qualify for. heres a link to help validate my statements and answer any more questions you may have now or in the future: http://ifap.ed.gov/ifap/byAwardYear.jsp ... =2010-2011