A new report from the Hope Center was recently published exploring How Using The Negative Expected Family Contribution Can Better Support Students.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
For decades, the shortcomings of financial aid have frustrated students and colleges alike. Flaws in the design and delivery of financial aid, including how “need” is defined and subsequently calculated, contribute to its diminishing efficacy. Subsequently, students’ financial need—defined as the gap between their resources and their cost of attending college—has continued to go unmet. Nearly three in four students have unmet financial need, with serious equity implications that result in greater unmet need for students of color. Further, the current Expected Family Contribution (EFC) formula omits several important factors, resulting in significant underrepresentation of unmet financial need.
The Hope Center is working to identify whether a more effective approach for assessing need, and ultimately delivering aid, could be developed within the existing federal financial aid framework under Title IV. Six Texas institutions, four community colleges and two regional public universities, are participating in an innovative Lumina Foundation–funded initiative addressing that question: Amarillo College, West Texas A&M University, El Paso Community College, the University of Texas at El Paso, Dallas County Community College District, and San Jacinto College.
The project is designed to better understand the financial needs of students, to help institutions more effectively communicate the reality of college costs to students, and to ensure that financial aid data is utilized to effectively support students. We seek improved ways to assess demonstrated financial need using existing data elements of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). For example, institutions can calculate and use negative EFC to determine which students have the greatest financial need, and use that information to direct support to them. Our research shows that many students are facing food and housing insecurity, even with the help of financial aid.4 The hidden financial need revealed by negative EFC partially explains why so many of those students—even with the support of financial aid programs—continue to struggle to provide for their basic needs.
Download the full report here: https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/NegativeEFC_PolicyMemo.pdf
About The Hope Center
The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice is driving the #RealCollege movement to assist students’ basic needs for food and housing. Donate to support #RealCollege students.