Financial Aid Determination

How financial aid eligibility is determined
(includes budgeted costs of attendance)

The Department of Education takes the information from the FAFSA and runs it through a formula called Federal Methodology. The result is a determination of how much the family can pay to send one member of that family to college for the school year. This is called the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

When Cabrini College's Financial Aid Office receives the FAFSA data from the Department of Education, it receives the EFC as well and compares this against an estimated cost of attendance.

This is based on "direct costs" which are billed to the student by the college, and "indirect costs" which are not billed by the college, but can be presumed that a student would have to pay for as part of going to college. An example of an indirect cost might be gasoline or books.

Financial need is determined by taking the appropriate cost below and subtracting the EFC.

The estimated costs of attendance used by the Financial Aid Office are: