FAFSA Financial Aid Glossary
FAFSA Financial Aid Key Terms You Need to Know
Cost of Attendance: What it costs to attend a specific college, including tuition & fees, room & board, books, transportation, personal expenses, and all other necessary expenses associated with going to that college.
Dependent Student: A student who is dependent on a parent or family member for financial aid purposes. If you are a dependent student, you are required to file the FAFSA using both student and parent financial information.
EFC: Expected Family Contribution. How much your family is expected to contribute to college costs. It is subtracted from the Cost of Attendance at the college(s) you plan to attend, to determine your eligibility for federal student aid.
FAFSA: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The form you need to fill out to get most types of student financial aid, including grants and loans.
Federal Methodology (FM) or Federal Formula: The calculation, used by the federal government, to determine a student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). In other words, the standardized methodology for figuring out how much you can contribute to your education to determine how much financial aid you will receive in the form of grants or loans.
Independent Student: What you are considered for financial aid purposes if you are financially independent. If you are an independent student, then you can file the FAFSA without submitting any information about your parents financial situation (although spousal information is required if you are married).
PIN: If you are applying for your FAFSA online, the PIN number acts as your electronic signature.
SAC: Student Asset Contribution. The portion of the EFC that is comprised of your personal assets (cash, checking, savings, investments, trust fund, etc.).
SAR: Student Aid Report. What the Department of Education sends you after you file your FAFSA form. The SAR lists the information you reported on your FAFSA. At the upper right of the front page of the SAR, you’ll see your Expected Family Contribution.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 2:22 pm and is filed under FAFSA, Glossary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
[…] also require you to fill out a College Scholarship Services Profile form in addition to the FAFSA. It is a secondary financial aid form that supplies further information about your family income. […]