What is Expected Family Contribution?

If you’ve been looking into financial aid for college, one ominous sounding acronym almost certainly popped up:  EFC.  EFC stands for expected family contribution, and plays an important role in determining how much financial aid you are likely to get.

Right off the bat, students often assume that the EFC is either how much money you’ll get from the government, or how much you’re going to have to pay for college.  These are both wrong.  The Expected Family Contribution represents the amount that your family is expected to contribute to your education.  It is by no means a guarantee, but… Read the rest

Official looking loan documents – a fake?

As the deadline approaches for the first payment on our student loans, I’ve been getting an increasing number of official looking letters – I always rush upstairs to tear them open, worried that Ive missed a deadline or forgotten a form, to discover that they are just advertisements – advertisements for debt consolidation.

While its true that we’ll likely be looking into consolidation of some sort down the road -  as I understand it, it usually makes sense – I’m pretty put off by the sneaky tactics these loan consolidation companies are using.  How many people get duped and think… Read the rest

Loans Coming due

My wife graduated last May, and we’ve really been dreading the next few months – we know that her student loans will be due soon, but we don’t really know when, or what will happen. Finally we got a statement in the mail today giving us more information and a deadline.

What is FAFSA?

FAFSA, short for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the application form for federal studnt grants, work study aid, and loans. In some msituations, the application can be used to apply for private aid as well. In short, its a big deal, and everyone looking to receive some form of financial aid for college will likely need to fill one out.

Because of its popularity, there are many methods available for filling out the FAFSA.

An option common with graduating high school seniors is the Electronic Data Exchange for schools. High schools often provide a method for… Read the rest