Establishing Need

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:

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.