<p>would it be a good idea to not correct your fafsa for 2009, if your parents' 2008 income was lower?</p>
<p>No, schools will ask for tax returns…</p>
<p>It is considered fraud to falsely report information on the FAFSA. In addition to losing your financial aid, you could lose admission to your college and face a hefty fine. </p>
<p>You need to be honest.</p>
<p>i mean, to just leave my estimated amount, because my estimated amount from 2008 is lower than my 2009’s actual and would it matter anyway? because my estimated and my actual is still giving me an EFC of 0 either way.</p>
<p>No, seriously, you need to report correct numbers. </p>
<p>Anyway, as I recall, the schools don’t make final aid awards based on estimates; you have to report the corrected figures. And they need to be accurate because, as GCmom415 said, the school(s) might very well ask for actual tax returns.</p>
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<p>It takes all of fifteen minutes to update the FAFSA. All you are doing is changing the fields that reflect the numbers from your 2009 taxes…nothing else.</p>
<p>You DO need to understand something. Many schools will NOT disperse financial aid to you until you update your FAFSA with the 2009 correct numbers and change your status to “taxes completed”. </p>
<p>If you change to “taxes completed” and you do NOT enter the correct info from your 2009 taxes…that is considered FRAUD. </p>
<p>Please…make the changes. I’m not sure what your issue is.</p>
<p>Do all schools ask for your completed tax returns???</p>
<p>Schools are required to verify a minimum of 30% of FAFSA data they receive by looking at tax returns and requesting details of family members reported on FAFSA. Some schools verify 100% (my son’s schools does). We have been verified 6 out of 7 FAFSAs so far.</p>
<p>what does an EFC of 0 mean? my parent’s estimated income and actual incomes both gives me an EFC of 0. how much money am i getting with an EFC of 0?</p>
<p>Well, that means you should be offered the maximum need-based aid that the school would give to a student that’s identical to you in every other way. In other words, you won’t be denied any financial aid on the basis of your EFC.</p>
<p>That means you should be given the maximum Pell Grant (free money!) You can get a Stafford loan (just like everyone else). You’ll be eligible for FSEOG, Perkins loans, etc (all though there are no guarantees, since the school will decide how to allocate the money among eligible students). Beyond that, it’s up to the school to attempt to meet as much of your need as they can with whatever’s available to them. You’ll have to talk to them about this.</p>
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<p>Actually, I’m not sure that’s true.</p>
<p>The EFC of $0 guarantees the maximum of the federally funded need based aid…that would be a full Pell grant, the maximum subsidized Stafford loan, SEOG if the school has that, Perkins loans, and work study. </p>
<p>Additional funding would come from university monies which they can disperse ANY WAY THEY CHOOSE TO…it’s their money.</p>
<p>"Additional funding would come from university monies which they can disperse ANY WAY THEY CHOOSE TO…it’s their money. "
So how do they choose who and how much money they’re giving out?</p>
<p>Institutional money is given as colleges choose. Some schools use institutional money for merit purposes only. Others use a combination of merit and need. Some provide need based aid in the form of grants for some students as well. </p>
<p>There is NO WAY to know how these schools determine the awarding of THEIR institutional funding as the formulas for doing so vary wildly by school.</p>
<p>In addition, just because student A gets package A…doesn’t mean Student B will get the same package. Sometimes schools award their money on a first come/first served basis. It really varies.</p>
<p>In addition, there really isn’t any way to tell a student what their aid will be with an EFC of $0 beyond the federal mandated funding (e.g. the Pell grant) and Stafford loans.</p>
<p>There are only two ways my statement would prove incorrect:</p>
<p>(1) They could introduce a random factor into the award system.</p>
<p>(2) They could give more money to people with higher EFCs.</p>
<p>I suppose both are possible, but I don’t expect my previous post to be very far off the mark in more than a handful of cases.</p>
<p>David,</p>
<p>what schools have you applied to?</p>
<p>As thumper stated, having a “0” efc simply means that you are eligible for the maximum amount of federal ais (Pell, subsidized stafford loans, federal work study). Not all schools offer SEOG and not all schools give perkins loans.</p>
<p>The majority of FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% of your demonstrated need. This can be a difficult position for a person with a “0” EFC because the college has not given them enough money to attend and it will be very hard for them to fill the gap.</p>
<p>Many schools that meet 100% demonstrated need with large amounts of grant aid or no-loan options will often require the CSS profile or their own instituitional form to give out their money. As thumper also stated it is up to the school to determine how they give out their money.</p>
<p>Some schools can give you an admit-deny which means that academically they have admitted you but financially they have given you a package that is not a financially feasible option for your family so you cannot afford to attend.</p>
<p>Another factor is the date you filed the FAFSA (and, if chosen for verification, the date on which you submitted your final verification document). Where I work, students who apply by the priority date & complete all verification requirements within 30 days of the date requested are granted the best aid … so a 0 EFC student who completes the FAFSA on time & complies with all requests for further information right away will get a better financial aid package than the student who applies after the priority filing date. The late-comer may still get a pretty good package … but the student who waits oo long is going to be out of luck for any institutional aid, SEOG, or CWS. Being on time is very important these days, when there are more “needy” students than ever.</p>
<p>i filed the estimated fafsa close to jan 1st, when the fafsa just came out. but i have not filed in the “real” one with the real values for 2009. do they look at the date in which you filed your estimated, or the real one, to determine how much money you get?</p>
<p>The real numbers. Some schools will give you an estimated FA package based on estimated numbers and adjust once you correct your numbers. They will not disburse any aid until they have accurate data. Others (both my kids schools) will not even start preparing a FA package until your FAFSA data is accurate.</p>
<p>I can’t answer for any school but my own. We look at the initial date filed. We encourage our students to file with estimated figures, if necessary. However, we DO have to adjust aid packages if the “real” figures yield a higher EFC. You mentioned that you would be auto 0 either way. Updating your info to the real figures won’t affect your aid, so please don’t worry … go ahead and do it to avoid any future hassles.</p>
<p>Alright i have a quick question, i am a college student and i want to know if i can still receive my survivors benefits from when my mother pasted in 2007. I ask this because i have heard that i can.</p>