The Big Mysteries of Financial Aid
By Landon Cole, Contributing Writer
Like many college students, I fall into a category that can make the financial aid process difficult. The Federal Student Aid office grossly overestimates my family’s contribution to my education when, in reality, I paid out-of-pocket for my associate’s degree from a community college, and I’m relying on loans to pay for my bachelor’s degree. The EFC (estimated family contribution) is calculated using parents’ combined household income to estimate a student’s eligibility for federal direct subsidized and unsubsidized student loans. These EFCs are often tied up in mortgages and car payments and are not accurate estimates of parents’ ability or willingness to pay for their child’s education. In my case, because the Department of Education estimates that my...