<p>Hi everyone. I have posted a few times about my disappointment in our FA package for my D who was accepted ED at William and Mary. Someone suggested that I call the FA office to inquire about the high loan/low grant ratio given our low EFC and so I took this advice and called yesterday. I'm repeating myself from another post but our package was this:</p>
<p>Anyway, when I spoke with the lady in the FA office she said that we had made a mistake on our FAFSA and that our EFC was 11,500 instead of 7,500 and that we should have received a notification from FAFSA regarding this (which we had not). I asked her what mistake we made and she couldn't access it, and furthermore, the person who would be able to help us happened to be out of the office for a few days. So, I went to the FAFSA site to check it out and there was no change posted. Our EFC was still 7500. Is there a chance that the FA office made a mistake or is it more likely that the FAFSA has not been updated? Clearly, there were no updates...no changes had been posted since we filed on February 11th.</p>
<p>Isn’t it frustrating to have to go thru the weekend waiting for an answer.</p>
<p>I wonder what told this lady that there had been an error? And where did she get the new amount? Did she say that your D’s FA package would now change? If so, did she say if $4k would be removed from the grant? If so, yikes!</p>
<p>I hope someone here can offer you some info, but I’m guessing that until this other person returns, you won’t have a definite answer. </p>
<p>BTW…does your D have a common name? Is it possible that this lady got her confused with someone else?</p>
<p>Yes, thanks mom2collegekids, for mentioning the possibility of a common name. Her name is not common, however, I did not have her ID with me when I called and there is a CHANCE that there is another student with her name. However, the package that she pulled up on the computer was exactly the package we have (what are the chances that a student with the exact name as our daughter which is not common would have the exact fa package as her?). </p>
<p>Quote: " Did she say that your D’s FA package would now change? If so, did she say if $4k would be removed from the grant? If so, yikes!"</p>
<p>The supposed error in our FAFSA resulted in the package that we got. In other words, she said her grant would have been higher with the EFC of 7500, but they based her package on an EFC of 11,500.</p>
<p>There are actually a number of possibilities in your case, terig. Some may be mistakes on your part (not entering untaxed payments to pensions, reporting the wrong wage and/or taxes paid information, including a family member in household size that the school will not allow to be included, including a parent in number in college, etc., etc). There may be mistakes on the part of the school (yeah, hard to believe a school processing aid packages for tens of thousands of students could make a mistake, right?!). Take a deep breath … try to relax until Monday … then call & ask to speak with the aid officer who verified the file. If you have any questions after you do that, please feel free to pm me & I will see if I can offer any explanations or advice (I am an aid officer IRL).</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! College Confidential has made me very impatient! While I’m waiting for Tuesday to come, I just can’t resist asking the questions so that all of you with so much experience can speculate!!</p>
<p>I did review EXACT numbers from my D’s package and the number left over after loans and grants are subtracted from COA is $9474 (my EFC was $7423). That number is right in the middle of the two EFC’s so I’m not sure what that means. I’m sure they would be more likely to gap than to give us more, right?!!</p>
<p>I did go over our FAFSA with a fine tooth comb. The only thing that stood out to me was the “taxes paid” in 2009. My husband is self employed and the amount of taxes that we actually “paid” in 2009 were below the number on our FAFSA because we made estimated payments. I just took the “taxes paid” from our 1040 which happened to be more than what we actually paid in our quarterlies (we still owed at the end of the year). Everything else was exactly right. </p>
<p>kelsmom: If they made a correction to our FAFSA, it is not showing up when I look at it. Wouldn’t it show that a change had been made?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. It depends on how they send out their changes to the federal system via their own computer system. It’s possible that their changes have not been sent out & logged into the federal system yet but are on the school’s system. </p>
<p>The taxes could be the issue. Again, there are other things that could be happening, too. Hard as it is, hang in there. Do try to speak directly with the person who verified your file. I think that may be important in your case.</p>
<p>If your husband is self employed it might be related to schedule C? You didn’t add self employment tax (an expense) to Fed income tax? In general AGI is reduced from Schedule C, but some colleges may “add back” certain items which lower your AGI and which caused your EFC to increase. I guess you’ll have to wait, but if I were a betting individual I’d bet it’s something on Schedule C.</p>
<p>Taxes on FAFSA *should *reflect your total actual tax liability bill from your 1040 rather than payments made during the year. So if they tied in with the 1040 (line 60 - total taxes, **not **line 71 taxes paid) then that sounds correct to me. I wonder if it something to do with being self employed - I have heard that that can cause complications but have no personal experience with this.</p>
<p>Sounds like you will just have to be patient and wait a couple of days. Like back in the olden days when we didn’t have the internet and all these resources that make us, including me, want instantaneous answers ;)</p>
<p>I also suspect it “might” have something to do with self employment taxes. Make sure you used the actual amounts that FAFSA says to use … and only those amounts. Sometimes parents add in the self employment taxes when they shouldn’t. But maybe not …</p>
<p>I can only speak for two schools - the one where I work & the one my D attends. Both schools estimate the COA based on a best-guess estimate of anticipated costs, and neither has adjusted COA after rates were set.</p>
<p>Well, I guess I will just have to wait and see. I don’t have the 1040 with me right now, but I think you all may have figured it out. I believe I used line 71 rather than line 60. Why wouldn’t you include the self employment taxes? (Forgive me if this is obvious to everyone but me!)</p>
<p>Oh, and no, Schedule C did not include depreciation or home office expenses.</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t you include the Self Employment Taxes? Because for whatever reason, the formula doesn’t allow it. Believe me, I have no idea why some things are allowed & others are not!! (Congress mandates the formula)</p>
<p>So, today I finally got the answer, and you all are great speculators! I entered the amount in line 60 which was our total taxes paid (this includes self employment taxes). I was supposed to enter the amount from line 55 which was a much, much, much (did I say much?) smaller amount. Evidently, self employment taxes are not allowable deductions (I still don’t get it, but they weren’t interested in my opinion), and thus our EFC jumped from 7500 to 11500.</p>
<p>kelsmom, I may be mistaken (and it’s late and I don’t have the FAFSA in front of me, just a 1040), but if you listed the amt on line 60 (line 55 (regular income tax) +SE tax (and possible other taxes)= line 60) wouldn’t you be counting the SE taxes TWICE? This is because the FAFSA will figure the regular 7.65% FICA tax (less if you’re above the SS cap) based on the “income earned from work”, and subtract it from “available income”, then on the 1040 you also get to deduct 1/2 of SE tax from gross income before you get to the AGI line - therefore both “halves” (roughly) of the SE tax have already been accounted for, and counting them again on the back side of the form (line 56) would be double-counting of SE tax?</p>
<p>I may be wrong (and it’s late!) but perhaps FAFSA isn’t as unfair on this as it appears at first glance? (also, on schedule C, don’t you multiply gross receipts (or whatever) by .9235 to compensate for the “extra” amount of FICA (7.65%) when you’re figuring “profit from business”)</p>
A $4k jump in EFC is costly!</p>