Financial need is defined as the difference between the established cost of attendance for an academic year less the a family’s calculated ability to pay towards educational costs for the given year. Here is the calculation:
Cost of Attendance (COA) less Expected Family Contribution (EFC) equals Financial Need
Establishing Need for Federal Student Aid
- Requires completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
- Determined using federal methodology
Establishing Need for Institutional Aid
- Requires completion of the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile
- Determined using institutional methodology
Notes:
- The aforementioned methodologies (federal and institutional) determine the EFC, which is the amount of money, based on the respective standardized formula, that a family is expected to contribute towards educational costs in a given year.
- While many variables are used in the methodology calculations, the most common factors in the calculations are as follows:
- Parent calendar year income for the specified year
- Student calendar year income for the specified year
- Value of parent assets
- Value of student assets
- Number of household members
- Number of household members in college
- Age of oldest parent
- Institutional methodology requires financial data from a non-custodial parent in scenarios where a student’s parents are separated/divorced.
- Institutional methodology also requires verification of sibling college enrollment shortly after the start of the student’s Tulane enrollment.
Last updated on
October 29, 2018 1:57 PM