Financial Aid: DIY

Your eligibility depends on your Expected Family Contribution, your year in school, your enrollment status, and the cost of attendance at the school you will be attending. Morehouse College determines how much financial aid you are eligible to receive.

• The Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships starts by deciding upon your cost of attendance (COA).
• Consider your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
• Subtract your EFC from your COA to determine the amount of your financial needand therefore how much need-based aid you can get.
• To determine how much non-need-based aidyou can get, Morehouse College takes your cost of attendance and subtracts any financial aid you’ve already been awarded.

Expected Family Contribution

Your EFC is an index number that Morehouse College Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships use to determine how much financial aid you would receive if you were to attend. The information you report on your FAFSA form is used to calculate your EFC.

The EFC is calculated according to a formula established by law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as unemployment or Social Security) all could be considered in the formula. Also considered are your family size and the number of family members who will attend college or career school during the year. The EFC Formula guide shows exactly how an EFC is calculated.

Cost of Attendance (COA)

Your COA is the amount it will cost you to go to school. Morehouse College will calculate your COA to show your total cost for the school year (for instance, for the fall semester plus the spring semester).

If you’re attending at least half-time, your COA is the estimate of

• tuition and fees;
• the cost of room and board(or living expenses for students who do not contract with the school for room and board);
• the cost of books, supplies, transportation, loanfees, and miscellaneous expenses (including a reasonable amount for the documented cost of a personal computer);

Calculating your Financial Need

Cost of Attendance (COA) − Expected Family Contribution (EFC) = Financial Need

Need-based aid is financial aid that you can receive if you have financial need and meet other eligibility criteria. You can’t receive more need-based aid than the amount of your financial need. For instance, if your COA is $16,000 and your EFC is 12000, your financial need is $4,000; so you aren’t eligible for more than $4,000 in need-based aid.

The following are the need-based federal student aid programs:

• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
• Direct Subsidized Loan
• Federal Work-Study

Morehouse College determines how much non-need-based aid you can get by using this formula:

Calculating Your Non-need-based Aid

Cost of Attendance (COA) − Financial Aid Awarded So Far* = Eligibility for Non-need-based Aid

*includes aid from all sources, such as the school, private scholarship providers, etc.

Non-need-based aid is financial aid that is not based on your EFC. What matters is your COA and how much other assistance you’ve been awarded so far. For instance, if your COA is $16,000 and you’ve been awarded a total of $4,000 in need-based aid and private scholarships, you can get up to $12,000 in non-need-based aid.

The following are the non-need-based federal student aid programs:

• Direct Unsubsidized Loan
• Federal PLUS Loan