Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

In plain English

Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, was the number the FAFSA produced to estimate how much a family could be expected to put toward college, used to determine need-based aid. It was renamed and revised into the Student Aid Index, or SAI, in a FAFSA overhaul. The name was always somewhat misleading: it was never a bill or the amount a family would actually pay, but an index colleges used to calculate need. Anyone reading older guidance will still see EFC; the current term is SAI, and while the formula changed in some ways, the basic role, an index that helps size need-based aid, carried over.

01Why it matters

Older college-planning material still says EFC, so knowing it is now the Student Aid Index, and that neither was ever the actual price a family pays, prevents confusion when comparing new and old aid guidance.

02The math, step by step

A family reads a few-years-old guide referencing their EFC and worries it is the amount they must pay. It never was; it was an index for sizing need-based aid, and today's FAFSA calls that number the Student Aid Index instead.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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