<p>So when I filled out my FAFSA for the upcoming school yeah I had used the same info from last since my mom didn't finish her taxes. With the info used my EFC was 0. My mom filed taxes we got everything done and so I corrected it. She made about and extra 2,000. The EFC then went up to about 468. The thing is today I got an email saying the college had made another correction and when I went on to check the EFC had gone up again to about 1,567. I have no clue why this happened my mom made 36,000 this year and she's a single parent supporting 3. I don't work and neither do my sister or little brother. It seems so unfair when I have a friend working 2 jobs has both parents working and makes a bunch more than my mom and he gets 0 each time he fills it out. What's going on here?</p>
<p>I have a similar situation/question…is there a way for me to see the changes that the “college” made that drove the EFC higher?</p>
<p>If so, could some outline the steps to get there on te fafsa web site.</p>
<p>I know when I made a correction, I was able to see the list of all the changes.</p>
<p>Also, is there any way to see what “college” made the changes?</p>
<p>You should be able to see the changes on your FAFSA by logging into your account on-line</p>
<p>[Home</a> - FAFSA on the Web-Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/]Home”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/)</p>
<p>Before putting in your password, you will see a list of actions towards the bottom of the screen. You can see the latest version of your SAR and you can see a history of changes. Click what you want to see and put in the password and the SAR or list of corrections will show up, depending upon what you want to review. If you scroll down on the SAR it will show all the answers to the questions. Changes that were made do not show up highlighted or anything. To compare your original FAFSA to the corrected one, I think it is best to print them out. The same thing happened to us and this is what I did. I also called the FAFSA customer service number and they were able to tell how many and what changes were made and which school made the changed. Our report was changed by only one out of seven schools. Then you should call the school that made the changes to find out why. Good luck!</p>
<p>Some schools that use institutional methodology do change the EFC on the FAFSA but do not send the changes to FAFSA until the student tuition deposits. So your aid could still be based on a new EFC and you wouldn’t know it until after.</p>
<p>Norcal, you may want to look to see if there were changes made to untaxed income. Often families fail to report untaxed payments to pensions (W2, box 12) and Making Work Pay credit (near the end of the tax return). Both items must be added in during verification, and this will raise the EFC. Also, did she have child support that was not on the FAFSA but was on the verification worksheet? That is also untaxed income & will cause the EFC to go up. Another common mistake is over reporting taxes paid … it’s either line 55 (1040) or line 35 (1040A). Fixing this often results in a big EFC jump.</p>
<p>No she hasn’t had any kids and everything is fine. All the info is the same except the income went up a little. I think I found the problem though being Sac State made a correction to the members of my mom’s family size. For some reason they changed it from 4 to 3? The man I talked to said this could be the problem, but idk why Sac would change it. Also, idk why it’d cause for the EFC to go up so much. Thanks for all of the input guys!</p>
<p>I have the same problem! My AGI went from 0 (uemployed) last year to $14K this year (found a job), and my EFC went up by more than that amount. Last year it was $9K and this year it is $25K. Soooo, it looks like I worked for nothing? I seriously don’t understand this. Here I am, struggling to make a few bucks to pay my basic living expenses, and <em>poof</em>, it’s gone, just like that. In fact, I am even worse off by working. Why? (PS - I am widowed and have no other household income to consider.)</p>
<p>kelsmom - Thanks for pointing out this finer points of the FAFSA corrections in what a college typically would do - specifically the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. I think that is part of what happened to my son. </p>
<p>When I talked to the FAFSA folks, they said the change that the college made was in the untaxed income area. I had previously listed my only 401k contributions. However, the amount the FAFSA folks said was changed was from $0 to the full amount (= 401k + $800 MWP tax credit). The reality is the change should have only been $800.</p>
<p>In any event, the net impact was the college reduced my son’s grant by a total of $1016 per year. This seems like an excessive cut based on an $800 increase in parent income. Maybe more reasonable if the total amount had to added - which I believe is not the case. I believe the college confounded things by making an error while making this change, as well.</p>
<p>I have contacted the college with the details and am waiting their response. They have a good track record getting back to me on e-mails.</p>
<p>The kicker is this particular college is probably not the one my son will likely be attending…I hope the one his is seriously considering is better at math and filing out forms.</p>
<p>lkf, if you have a $25k EFC, you are making more than a “few bucks.” Or you have a significant amount of assets. Personally, I think it’s better to have a job & be earning a steady income than not … so you ARE better off in the long run. It may not feel that way, but really it is.</p>
<p>I sent you a pm kelsmom…thanks!</p>
<p>College changed my EFC too. (from 1238 to 2038)
Work credit of $800 screw up me.</p>