A school that already accepted D22 alerted us that another college had changed our FAFSA. When I went into the SAR I saw that “a college”, I can’t see which, made a FAFSA correction this week and came up with a lower EFC. How common is this?
It happens. Just check to make sure the info corrected is accurate (if you can see this)
Call the college that made the correction and ask ?
Did you do CSS anywhere or did you download directly from the IRS? You do want to ensure what’s in there is correct.
These two things don’t go together.
The IRS Data Retrieval Tool is for the FAFSA. Not sure what downloading from the IRS has to do with CSS Profile. Can you please explain?
Or….do you mean…perhaps the info on the CSS Profile was deemed accurate, and the Fafsa was changed to reflect what was on the Profile?
Sure. I’m just trying to see why data was changed, trying to find a source.
You are correct.
I’m wondering but don’t know:
1). Did they self fill in the fafsa?
2). Many css schools idoc and get your docs. I believe css schools still reference fafsa for the govs efc even tho they have more detailed info.
In fact W&L pretty much told me this. When I asked why not need aid when 88% of people in my income bracket qualify, they quoted back my fafsa efc and said it’s more than the COA. And they had all my docs - tax return, etc.
I don’t know the answer. Just thinking out loud. And not sure how difficult it will be to determine who changed it.
If the OP can’t figure out where or why, the fafsa help line may be able to help. I called them numerous times and they were responsive.
Just trying to help figure out where or how this happened so OP can ensure the #s being used are correct.
I read on another thread somewhere here — can’t find now — that there was a glitch in the FAFSA form last year and it failed to subtract an amount that should have been deducted (scholarship income of the student, maybe?)
Anyway, the form was producing too high of an EFC as a result. I don’t know if that is still happening, but if so, schools aware of it may be correcting it for applicants?
We used the IRS retrieval tool on the FAFSA, so all the numbers should be correct.
The college that alerted me to this (it’s not the college that made the change) now wants our W-2s to see which set of numbers to base their FA on. I’m fine giving them our W-2s as we have nothing to hide.
Also, the initial EFC that I got pretty much corresponds to most NPCs that I ran, it’s the new EFC, that’s the outlier (to our benefit if it stands)
I was thinking if they took it lower that’s a bonus for u 
This is the thread I was thinking of — does this situation apply to you?
it would definitely be in our favor but it’s a 20% reduction, which strikes me as a lot. so I am rather suspicious
my D is an incoming Freshman, so no work study or scholarships yet. she did not have to file taxes at all for that year.
I’d say if u can figure out which school did, call their aid office and ask why.
If you can’t call the fafsa hotline. They can likely tell you which did.
Like you, I’d want to know why !!
Wish I had more to add but I don’t.
Did you have any covid income (unemployment?) that was included as income but later you were allowed a deduction?
It’s not uncommon for schools to update the FAFSA if they find conflicting information between what you reported & what is on documents you submitted (they are required to resolve conflicting information & update the FAFSA accordingly). You can ask what they did & why. If you call the FAFSA helpline, they can tell you which school made a change, and then you can contact the school. If another school saw that a change was made, it means that the school submitted the changes globally (rather than just to their own system) - so you should actually be able to figure out what was changed. Print out the original SAR & the new SAR (transactions 1 & 2, most likely in your case). Compare them line by line to see what was changed. Let us know what you find - we can explain the changes.
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luckily our income was not affected by Covid in 2020, it was a normal income year.
thanks for your reply and further explanation. it makes me feel better that this doesn’t seem to be completely out of line. I will call the FAFSA helpline and see what they say.
What I find interesting is that the college that alerted me already gave us a full financial offer about a month ago, so they didn’t see any issues but another college obviously did. I will report back what I find out.
Hi kelsmom. You seem very knowledgeable!! I have a question should FAFSA be able to tell you which school updated your ECF. I received an email from FAFSA that my form had been updated. I spent an hour with them on phone this morning but they say there is no one for them to know which school did it. She checked with her supervisor and everything. Sounded crazy to me that there is no audit trail whatsoever but does that sound correct to you? Thanks!!
I honestly don’t know for sure. I have heard that some people have been able to find out, but I don’t know if that was something that they should have been told or even whether they really were told. It’s also possible that there have been changes in the system such that the reps really can’t see it.
I would not stress about it unless something happens that raises a red flag. So many small updates can be made that make absolutely no difference. There are a number of responses that are often completed incorrectly, and schools will screen for those & fix. The vast majority of those fixes don’t affect the EFC at all.
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Thank you so much!
Just want to chime in that this happened to me today. I called the FAFSA helpline and they told me that they do not have visibility into what college made the change. Our EFC went up by all of $1 so I’m not losing sleep over it; I just thought it was odd.