Gulp.....

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, Elroy and Judy completing their final college applications (see what colleges Elroy and Judy have applied to here) and Jane and I applying for financial aid. The principle financial aid document is the FREE Application For Student Aid (FAFSA). Normally, I like anything that is free. I think every family with kids entering college, save for the independently wealthy, submit a FAFSA application in which you detail all the financial aspects of your life from yearly salary and assests down to how much change is currently in your pockets and underneath the sofa seat cushions. We finally completed the FAFSA after days and days of figuring out how much $$$ is coming-in and how much $$$ is going-out and, I note with emphasis, providing any "special circumstances" the good folks at FAFSA should consider before providing us an estimate of what our family is expected to come up with for Elroy's and Judy's college fund. Well, the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) I received was generated immediately upon submitting the electronic FAFSA application. So obviously this is a computer-generated cold calculation that has no intention of feeling my pain over our special circumstances (like having twins entering college!!). Anyway, this is the message I received nanoseconds after hitting the FAFSA submit button. The comments in bold parentheses are mine.

Based on the information we have on record for you, your EFC is 49235 (That's $49,235.00 dollars....Gulp! For some reason FAFSA doesn't like to use financial punctuation like the dollar sign, comma, or period. I wonder if that is supposed to make the EFC more palatable?). You are not eligible for a Federal Pell Grant (Doh!) but you may be eligible for other aid (yeah, like first aid to keep me alive for the next four years). Your school will use your EFC to determine your financial aid eligibility for other federal grants, loans, and work study, and possible funding from your state and school. (Somehow....I don't feel overly optimistic).