Your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is the number that’s used to determine your eligibility for federal student aid. While the EFC is considered the amount of money a family is expected to contribute toward a student’s college costs, the EFC is not the amount of money that your family must provide. Rather, you should think of the EFC as an index that colleges use to determine how much financial aid you would receive if you were to attend their school. The Student Financial Aid Office uses your EFC to determine the need for aid for the following types of federal student financial aid: Federal Pell Grant, TEACH Grant and Stafford Subsidized Loans. All data used to calculate your EFC comes from the information you provide on the FAFSA. A variety of factors affect your EFC from the FAFSA: household size, number of people in college in your household, household income levels, state of residence, etc. Once you have completed your FAFSA, it is processed by the Department of Education’s Central Processing System. Once processed, you will receive an output document containing a summary of your FAFSA as well as your results (Student Aid Report). The Department of Education has provided a document that provides additional information about the EFC Formula.