If you have a college-bound high school senior, you’ve likely become familiar with the FAFSA®, the main application for financial aid (if not, start here to get acquainted). The FAFSA helps colleges determine your eligibility for grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study, and they do so using your Student Aid Index (SAI). The SAI is a calculated number, based on the data that a family inputs into the FAFSA and a calculation set by Congress, and it is designed to represent the family’s financial strength and their ability to pay for college. Colleges and universities use each student’s SAI to determine the student’s financial aid eligibility and then create a financial aid offer. The SAI replaces the formerly used Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
Does the SAI Determine What I’ll Pay for College?
Unfortunately, no. It’s just a calculated number based on a formula to help colleges get a sense of your financial situation. The amount you’ll pay for college is based on the cost of the school minus any financial aid you receive. It is important to know that the SAI makes no assumptions about how a family will pay for educational expenses.
Colleges and the SAI
When a student submits a FAFSA, every college that receives the application will input the student’s FAFSA data into the SAI calculation (called federal methodology) to generate an SAI for that student. The school will then subtract the student’s SAI from the college cost (called the Cost of Attendance (COA)) to determine the student’s eligibility for financial aid.
Colleges will do their best to fill in the student’s financial aid eligibility with financial aid funds from federal, state, and institutional sources. But they often can’t fill in the entire amount.
Calculating Your SAI
If you haven’t yet completed the FAFSA and would like an idea of your SAI, we have an SAI Calculator that can provide you an estimate. You’ll be asked some financial information about your household, but you can utilize the tool anonymously.
The SAI calculation considers student and parent income, student and parent assets, and the family size. The SAI formula does not consider a family’s personal debt (i.e. credit cards, car loans, personal debt).
The calculated number can be as low as -1500 and can reach much higher than any college’s cost of attendance. The SAI formula is managed by Federal Student Aid, a department within the federal government, and approved by Congress every year. The same formula is used for all families applying for federal financial aid.
Viewing Your SAI
Once you submit the FAFSA, your confirmation page will display your SAI, and your FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS), which is emailed to the student after a FAFSA is submitted, also lists your SAI. You can log back in to your FAFSA and view your SAI on the confirmation page at any time.
If you have questions about how your SAI was calculated or if you feel that your SAI is not an accurate portrayal of your family’s financial circumstances, contact the financial aid office to get clarification.
Do Colleges Ever Use Different Calculations?
As mentioned, all colleges use the same calculation when evaluating your FAFSA data, but schools that require the CSS Profile usually use a separate calculation to review that data and determine your eligibility for financial aid funded by the college. Those schools still use the main SAI calculation to award financial aid funded by the federal government and the state. So you’ll have a few different calculated numbers at those colleges.
Is My SAI the Same at Every School?
Schools can exercise professional judgment to make certain changes to the data elements on your FAFSA, which can result in a modified SAI. If that occurs, your SAI may differ slightly from school to school. But professional judgment is only exercised in special circumstances. For the most part, your federal SAI should be similar at each school.
Your Financial Aid Offer and Your SAI
Remember, the SAI is not the amount that a student will receive in financial aid, but rather the figure that the college will use to determine federal financial aid eligibility and create a financial aid offer that assists in meeting one year of college costs. Understanding your SAI can help you in understanding your entire financial aid offer.
If you have any questions about your SAI, or the financial aid process in general, reach out to our College Planning Team. You can find them at [email protected] or (800) 449-MEFA (6332).
