The Student Aid Report that the student receives after submitting the FAFSA will have the letters EFC on the first page followed by some numbers. EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution and is an estimate of what the family can contribute toward the student's education that academic year.
An EFC of 5000 literally means that the federal government thinks the family can provide $5000 toward the cost of attending college that year. In actuality, the EFC is just a number used to determine aid eligibility and does not reflect how much a family will or will not pay towards educational expenses that year.
