<p>So I was admitted at a school that supposedly meets the full demonstrated need of all students. My EFC there was about $22,000 originally and I had a $1500 Pell grant (at another similar school my EFC was $5500) We, hoping fir something more affordable, emailed them and then sent in a copy of my parents' w2 forms that apparently hadn't been received. They ended up changing the EFC to $25,000 and lowering my Pell grant to $700. I really like the school but it is impossible for my parents to pay that much. Any advice?</p>
<p>Pell grants are determined by federal rules – but it looks like the institution determined that something had not been entered correctly on your FAFSA based on the W-2 forms, and corrected it. Why don’t you contact them (by phone) and ask what was changed and why?</p>
<p>Need to clarify something: EFC is a federal calculation. Your EFC, as calculated through the FAFSA process, will be the same number at all schools. How schools choose to meet (or not meet) any resulting “Need” is up to each school individually, since they each have different resources.</p>
<p>Schools that meet “full demonstrated need” are almost always CSS Profile schools. Each school using Profile gets to determine what your “Need” is.</p>
<p>Something isn’t right. First of all, with a $5.5K or $25K EFC you wouldn’t be Pell eligible at all. The maximum EFC to receive any Pell is $4,995.</p>
<p>[IFAP</a> - Dear Colleague Letters](<a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/P1201.html]IFAP”>http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/P1201.html)</p>
<p>Agree that something is not right here. To get a 1500 Pell grant would require an EFC in the 4000 ish range. An EFC of 22000 or even 5500 would have zero Pell eligibility.</p>
<p>But to answer you question, yes a school not only can but must reduce Pell if they find the information entered on FAFAS is not accurate.</p>
<p>Sorry I definitely mistyped that. My FAFSA EFC was around $3900 but the (non-estimated I guess) family contributions that the schools expected my family to be able to pay were $5500 and $25,000 respectively. The thing was we used the same documents that we sent them, to fill out the FAFSA. Also we sent both schools the same information and the other school just finalized my package and didn’t change the amount of Pell grant money.</p>
<p>I think the poster is confusing FAFSA EFC with the family contribution amount set by colleges in their final award. FAFSA EFC is what determines Pell eligibility, but college financial aid packages can require a family to pay well beyond that.</p>
<p>And colleges can, and do, make corrections to the FAFSA EFC which impact Pell eligibility level. The “corrections” are not always a matter of correcting mistakes on the form – the colleges can also use “professional judgment” to make actual changes to values on the form. </p>
<p>It can also be confusing when the FAFSA EFC & Pell Eligibility is impacted by a sibling also in college, or one also planning to enroll.</p>
<p>Our experience at Reed was that they used the FAFSA EFC ( or what we were expected to pay, was the same amount as fafsa)but it was way too high to qualify for the Pell grant.
I am confused about qualifying for Pell but EFC being $25,000.</p>
<p>Does your family have a lot of assets like a 2nd or rental home?</p>
<p>The best way to figure out what happened is to log back into your FAFSA account and see if there were corrections. If so, print out the initial version and the corrected one and see where the changes was made. The school couldn’t lower the Pell amount unless your FAFSA EFC increased.</p>
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Not sure I understand this. Give me an example of this “professional judgement”.</p>
<p>I checked the FAFSA and it said the last correction was made in February by me so they didn’t do anything recently. I also just checked my financial aid package there and apparently I get $750 in SEOG money which I’m not sure was there before or not. Would that take away from my Pell grant?</p>
<p>If the school did not change your FAFSA your best bet is to call the school’s fin aid department and find out why your Pell was reduced. I’ve never seen Pell reduced for another grant, I have only seen school scholarships reduced for increases in Pell.</p>
<p>I was just wondering because apparently the SEOG is also a government thing.</p>
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High equity in the primary home would drive up the college Profile-based EFC. The FAFSA would not consider that equity at all; most profile schools will count that. Even a person with a very modest income could have a high-equity home – for example, a home that has been owned for many years, or acquired via inheritance or as part of a divorce settlement.</p>
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<p>See [FinAid</a> | FinAid for Educators and FAAs | Professional Judgment](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/)</p>
<p>[Professional</a> Judgment Tip Sheets](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/financial-aid/im/tips]Professional”>Professional Judgment Tip Sheets – Higher Ed)</p>
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They may have made the correction on their own records without entering it yet on FAFSA, deferring the actual FAFSA entry until after you accept the award. (I actually think that’s the better practice – it can be very confusing for students when there are multiple changes to the FAFSA from different colleges – easier on everyone if the college simply waits until they know for sure that a particular student is coming).</p>
<p>My parents don’t really have any assets. We don’t even own one home (we’re renting) and all of their cars they are still paying for.</p>
<p>You will need to call the school’s financial aid department and ask them how they are calculating income and assets.</p>
<p>Does the school that set the family contribution at $5500 have the current info (the same W2’s you sent to the more expensive college?) It could be that you simply are borderline for Pell eligibility and the current numbers pushed your EFC up beyond the level for Pell eligibility. If your FAFSA EFC was 3900 based on estimated income but will be 5100 with actual income, then you are only looking at a $1200 difference but that is enough to eliminate Pell eligibility.</p>
<p>Seems like a no-brainer to me… you need to attend the “similar” college that wants you to pay $5500. (If it were me, as a parent, I wouldn’t even bother with the $22000/$25000 college. )</p>
<p>I am really confused about your EFC if your family doesn’t have assets.
The school that meets full need also says her EFC is $25,000.
How would they be figuring that if there are no assets and income is same as on FAFSA?</p>
<p>So my situation is that my parents have four children (including me) and together make a little over $120,000 per year. They’re both pretty terrible with finances and have student loans and credit card debt that realistically they’re never going to pay that off. They have close to no savings and are probably not going to be able to retire until they’re physically forced to. Almost all of my father’s income from his first job goes toward either the house or the (expensive) office space he runs his second job (that he hopes someday becomes his only job) out of. The business that he has been hoping will get off the ground for the past 5-6 years loses over $50,000 a year and significantly reduces my families adjusted gross income. I guess one of the schools is considering the deductions and the other isn’t but that shouldn’t lower my Pell grant should it?</p>
<p>Even with 4 kids, I can’t figure out how a $120k income would put you anywhere near Pell range.</p>