What's EFA?

You may see EFA and think I made a typo, meaning to type EFC. But no, there is an EFA. I have mentioned it already in these postings.

EFA stands for Estimated Financial Aid. This is the total amount of financial aid that can be used to pay for tuition. This is used the most in determining your Unmet Need to see if you qualify for a Subsidized loan. The calculation for that is Cost of Attendance minus EFC minus EFA equals Unmet Need.

When determining your Unmet Need for a loan, your EFA will include any other FA you have during that loan period that can pay for tuition (not necessarily that it is paying your tuition, just that it can). Things like pell grant, stage agency funding, scholarships, etc. would be used. If you have a Sub and/or Unsub already during your loan period and you are adding to it/them, then you would have to include it/them also. So, for example, let's say you have a pell grant, and you are filling out a Sub and Unsub. Your EFA for that loan calculation would only be your pell grant. But let's say you have a pell grant, a scholarship, a Sub, and an Unsub, and you want to take out more Unsub. Your EFA would be the pell grant, the scholarship, the Sub, and the first Unsub.

EFA is a rather simple concept. But it is easy to get the acronym confused with EFC.