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Hey all,
I have been working as an engineer for a while but am planning to quit and attend law school full-time this fall.
Because I have a good-paying job, my FAFSA reflects that I had solid income for 2013. This will be true until this August when, obviously, that income will go to zero.
There's nowhere to indicate that on the FAFSA. I guess they just wait to see that in next year's FAFSA.
Anyhow, my EFC calculated from FAFSA was 024XXX. I understand that this number is "not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college, nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by your school to calculate how much financial aid you are eligible to receive." as the FAFSA website indicates.
But what's confusing is that schools use this number subtracted from COA to calculate how much need-based aid you can get.

I am not certain where I will go to law school yet, but let's choose a hypothetical COA of 65,000 and use my EFC of 24,000.
Therefore, I will be eligible for 65,000-24,000 of need-based aid, so 41,000.

I believe this means that I can take out a maximum of 41,000

That makes sense so far -- although that goes against the quote above, since it turns out that my EFC is what they expect me/my family to pay.

But what happens when that same school whose COA is 65,000 is also giving you a scholarship? Let's call that scholarship 20,000.
Does that mean now you can only take out 21,000 of aid? (41,000 minus the 20,000 scholarship?) or are you still able to take the 41,000?

I ask all this because while I made good money in the last year, I will not be able to put down 24,000 towards my 1L education. Loans are no fun, but I will have to take them out for the amount that is leftover after my scholarship.

Any help to understand this would be REALLY appreciated.

You should be able to take out the full cost of attendance, the school won't expect you to spend 24K out of pocket.

leigh912198972 wrote: But what's confusing is that schools use this number subtracted from COA to calculate how much need-based aid you can get.

I am not certain where I will go to law school yet, but let's choose a hypothetical COA of 65,000 and use my EFC of 24,000.
Therefore, I will be eligible for 65,000-24,000 of need-based aid, so 41,000.

i'm pretty sure this is where you went wrong. you might be "eligible" for $41,000 in need-based aid, but you're exceedingly likely to get $0, no matter what your EFC is.

you can take out whatever loans you need to meet your COA. so if they give you a $20k scholarship, you can take out COA - $20k in loans.

Hi there,

I'm a past financial aid counselor, and have insight to federal regulations for financial aid.

You're eligible to take out loans up to your COA no matter your EFC number. Your EFC simply determines how much "need-based" aid you could be eligible to receive. Graduate students can take out a 20.5k Stafford Unsubsidized Loan per year. Unsubsidized loans are not need-based loans so your EFC is irrelevant. Unless your COA is offset by grants or scholarships, you'll have to take out a Grad PLUS loan or a private loan to cover the remaining amount of your COA.

If you go to a school that has a university grant for graduate students with financial need, I'd suggest contacting the financial aid office to ask for procedures of a 'special circumstance.' All financial aid offices have a form you can fill out to petition your EFC number be lowered. You simply have to state that your income from last year is not reflective of what your income will be this year. You'll have to submit a letter from your past employer that states when you were hired and when you ceased employment.

Many people who go through this process can have their EFC lowered to 0. It only helps graduate students if their school has a lot of need-based grants for graduate students.

Thanks so much!!