Steve, unless they manage to fix the system in the next eight years, that’s the smartest approach!

It means that the government says that you can afford to pay $6,642 in tuition next year. Ideally, you will want to find a college that will fund the gap between your EFC and the college’s tuition, by meeting your need with grants or scholarships.

It means, like me you will get pretty much no financial aid from any school without scholarships or grants. I did EFC just for fun even though my kids are 8 years away from college, we would already receive no financial aid at all. So if they want a B- rated school, we will need about 600,000 to pay for to educations. So we decide, work until I’m 80 or use our retirement to pay for their school. I’ll be retiring and they can take loans just like I did. I will beg them to focus on the academics, not the fake prestige of Ivy’s.

Hi Sabrina! It means that the government says that you can afford to pay $3288 toward college costs in the upcoming year.

Tyra is correct – it means that the government says that your expected family contribution toward college is $0. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean that’s what colleges will ask your family to pay. You may want to check out How Much Does College Really Cost? to learn more about tuition gapping.