<p>My son's college made a change to his FAFSA today. I compared the EFCs and they're very close (though not in our favor), so it's not a big deal, but I was wondering if there is some way I can see what was changed, without playing "can you spot the difference" on the 2 SARs. This son is a returning student (rising senior) but I have another son who is an entering Freshman, and depending on what the change was, we might need to fix it on his FAFSA as well. In the younger son's case, his aid is primarily merit-based, but he may qualify for some subsidized loans based on FAFSA.</p>
<p>I can find the correction history page from which I can download the 2 different SARs but I was wondering if there would be a summary of what was changed anywhere. (Last year the same son's school made a larger change in our favor, as I accidentally included the value of my DH's business on the FAFSA, even thought it is too small - 1 employee only - to be counted there. But I can't remember how I figured out what the change was.)</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>did your son earn more last year than what he reported on fafsa? that may have been the update.</p>
<p>No, we reported directly from his submitted tax form, although we did not use the DRT (as we did the FAFSA the day after submitting his taxes)</p>
<p>My college did the same thing. I had to provide information for verification and they were basically like “Yeah, we will look this stuff over verify everything to see if you are eligible for aid…” as if they were doubtful. I used the retrieval tool but they still changed something on the FAFSA and I have no idea what (EFC did not change). </p>
<p>There are many changes that might be made during verification … household size, number in college, untaxed income, income from work, year in school … anything on the FAFSA that doesn’t match the school’s records/the verification documents/the tax return must be updated. You can see the changes if you go in and compare line by line with previous transactions.</p>
<p>Even we updated FAFSA after filing tax and did the DRT in early February, my D’s school still asked for tax returns and W2 (in addition to a couple other forms about household size etc) after sending us the estimated financial aid in March. I thought there would be no significant change in the aid as there is no change or correction of data. To my surprise, we got an official FA award notice yesterday with additional grant money in it. I just checked my D’s FAFSA and there is no change in it since February. So we really don’t understand this FA process. We are not complaining as we are paying $2000 less than then FAFSA EFC. However, this also means my D may not be eligible for any pending scholarships that has a need component in it.</p>
<p>I finally went and compared the SARs side-by-side and found that the college had increased line 91 “Parents’ Net Worth of Current Investments” by $500. This is odd because they really have no basis on which to change that. It only impacts our EFC by $14 so I don’t really care, but I don’t understand why that was changed.</p>
<p>Did you change the value of your current investments on your FAFSA at any time after the very first transaction? If so, they may have reverted to the amount you originally reported (as assets should not be changed after the initial filing). If not, though, it sounds like maybe they made a mistake on their end.</p>
<p>No. The numbers are different on my 2 kids’ FAFSAs because they were filed a few months apart (one entering Freshman, one returning Senior) but each accurately reflected the assets on the day filed, and was never edited. I can’t see any reason for the school to have changed it. And they changed it by exactly $500 which is weird. It’s such a small impact that I don’t really want to bother them about it though. They’ve been generous and helpful in the past.</p>
<p>(Also my younger son did not apply to my older son’s school, so they would not have seen his FAFSA. And the difference between the asset numbers on the 2 FAFSAs is not $500 in any case.)</p>
<p>In our case, we turned in the FAFSA before the CSS Profile and the savings numbers in both our and D’s accounts had changed. The college seems to have just taken the numbers from profile and matched them on the FAFSA. Our EFC went up 4 dollars. </p>
<p>Hmm, I think I did FAFSA and Profile the same day for that student, but I don’t even remember anymore. </p>