Acronyms that contain the term Expected Family Contribution 

Expected Family Contribution

Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is an estimate of the parents' and/or the student's ability to contribute to a year of post-secondary education expenses. The EFC is used in the student financial aid process in the United States to determine an applicant's eligibility for need-based federal student aid, and in many cases, state and institutional (college) aid. It is located on the Student Aid Report and Institutional Student Information Record sent after the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is processed. If the FAFSA has not yet been filed, there are a number of calculators on the Web (see links below) that will give a good approximation of a family's EFC. Need-based aid has to be reapplied for each year; that is, a new FAFSA must be filed every year, the EFC is recalculated, and the financial aid possibly adjusted. The EFC is not what a student's family actually pays, which is usually higher, sometimes much higher.

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