Probably.
Schools that donāt use the CSS Profile do not guarantee to meet full need for all studentsā¦with the exception of University of Chicago.
Has your student received admissions and financial aid from other colleges? Are any of the net costs affordable for your family?
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It isnāt possible to refile. Once you file, all that can be done is to file corrections or have a school file corrections. If you didnāt file CSS and FAFSA on the same day, they could be different for assets but usually the income, from 2 years ago, is the same.
Work study is an amount the student CAN earn while working certain jobs. The jobs each have their own hourly rate and you have to find a job just like youād find a job at Starbucks or a cafeteria or golf course. There are some tax/FA benefits to doing a work study job, but otherwise it is just a job. I think the weekly limit is 20 hours. If student finds a job for $10/hr, and worked the 20 hours, he could make $200/wk x 10 weeks of the quarter(?) x 3 quarters = $6000 for the year. Likely the job would (now) pay more than $10/hr, but also likely the student would work less than 20 hours per week (just using those numbers for easy math). If the student doesnāt work, he doesnāt get the money, so donāt count on that money when doing your school budget.
Yes, most work study jobs pay about minimum wage or the going wage for that area. At a school in my town, the school has to pay more because the local minimum is $17.30 and the students can just get jobs in the community (and there are a lot of them). So just depends. In Santa Clara, Iād guess āminimumā is going to be close to $20/hr.
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Yeah and two schools asked us to revise it despite us asking if it was supposed to be the day we signed it so last year or the current day which was in March. And then I asked a financial counselor to verify. So 3 people from different places verifying that circumstances were changing and that we ought to change it. So I guess I need to go back and revise it back.
But if circumstances change before the start of the school year, and weāre not allowed to change FAFSA, does the school revise something in their system? Both schools said to immediately file for Cal Grant but that Cal Grant was tied to FAFSA.
Only if you request a special circumstances consideration and provide sufficient documentation to support your lesser income.
I wouldnāt change it back at this point, since the error was on their end and they told you to do it. If youāre now selected for verification, as I suspect you are, the schools will collect all of your income data and make the changes themselves. If they choose to adjust your income, they can do that after verification of the base year income. Just make sure that you file the necessary paperwork for the special circumstances review & submit all necessary documentation.
If you werenāt selected for verification, my answer would be different. Weāre you selected for verification?
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No, I corrected assets not income. Our income is not changing though I guess it will be affected by loss of rental income eventually. But they said to change assets only because thatās the only asset we own. So if we move back in the summer, that line should be reduced accordingly.
I shouldnāt say we refiled. I thought it was refiling. Itās a correction to one line, but I assumed by submitting it was a refiling.
No one asked for 1040 or anything else. Other schools have but not for this particular reason since I didnāt submit corrected FAFSA to every school.
Actually I just remembered: another school just asked us to revise our assets. CWRU asked me to change the assets on their form after I emailed about what to do with the primary home. I didnāt have a chance to ask about FAFSA as they have the original version. I just didnāt think they would consider us for entry (EA to SCU).
Assets are reported as of the date of your initial filing of the FAFSA. This is something you should NOT have changedā¦unless you made a mistake when you initially entered it. That was NOT the case with you. You changed it because your assets went down.
The FAFSA instructions are very clear on this. Assets are as of the date of initial filing of the FAFSAā¦and are not to be changed. @kelsmom
I didnāt change income line as I didnāt even think about that. The reduction in income is actually not very much. Itās about equal to Cal Grant plus work study. I only changed the asset line.
Ah, I misunderstood. Technically, you should not have changed assets, but itās not a change that is likely to trigger verification. The schools should actually have requested information from you & made the change themselves. If there are any schools on your FAFSA that didnāt tell you to make the changes, you should reach out to them to tell them what happened. They will probably reset your FAFSA to the original number on their end. If they do that, youāll need to do a request for a special circumstance review to request a change if you want them to consider adjusting your assets.
If there are schools your child is no longer interested in, there is no reason to contact them.
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It also sounds like this is something that is going to happen not something that has already happened. Is that correct.
When do you plan to move back to your primary residence and no longer rent it?
Right I do understand that at this point, but 2 schools asked me to change it and as I mentioned above we did ask if that was ok with FAFSA. Both asked us to change it.
So since itās clearly a violation, Iāll resubmit and let SCU know.
Letās say itās not SCU but another school that has some merit plus a grant. Am I supposed to ask that school to change it in their system that weāre moving back to the primary home? And let them know I canāt change FAFSA?
I guess my concern hereā¦.you made a FAFSA change for something that hasnāt even happened yet. You donāt plan to move until the summer, right? And the lease for the tenants hasnāt ended yet.
Soā¦you made a change based on something that hasnāt even happenedā¦yet.
Am I correct?
Itāll be in July 2023. And thatās what I told to 3 schools.
Yes and the lease ends in June which I also mentioned to 3 schools (CWRU was very recent and Iām not sure if I want to proceed with them). The advice was in error obviously but they all seemed very willing to help and consider our situation and confident with telling us what to do. These schools mentioned that since it was happening very soon, they would reconsider the aid.
Got it thanks! I wonāt be contacting many, just one at this point. Iām not sure if itās worth it as none of the schools are need blind and will look at the equity.
So just making sure, I need to go back into FAFSA and change the assets back. If I want cal grant or work study, I should contact the financial aid office and ask them to reconsider and change it on their end. And since thereās too much equity, then itās like a wash as weāre not getting any more from these schools.
Need blind is an admissions term. It means that your financial need was not considered when the application for admissions was considered. It is NOT a financial aid term.
Did you mean that the schools donāt guarantee to meet full need for all?
You knowā¦we donāt know your full financial situation and you donāt need to share that here. But your income could have put you out of the running for aid at some places.
You are a CA resident where there are many, many public universities. Did your student get accepted to any of theseā¦or anywhere else that is affordable!
I do not think anyone here can answer this questions for you. You need to contact the financial aid offices and ask them what to do. They might want you to leave things alone.
@Gumbymom i thought the Calgrant was mostly based on incomeā¦.
āMeeting full needā is not the question to ask. Colleges can claim that, but they can define āneedā however they want (and not necessarily related to the FAFSA EFC).
Ideally, you would have used each collegeās net price calculator on its web site to get a financial aid estimate before deciding whether to apply.