<p>Looks like our income for this year will be less than I initially estimated. My husband relies on overtime at his job and it has been consistently available. He works for a state and government funded non-profit and he just found out two weeks ago that his OT was cut in half (effective immediately). This amounts to about 12K/year for us. My son's school offered him a strong fa package with a large merit scholarship and a need-based grant as well as a 5500 Stafford Loan and an offer of 1600 work study. We did not qualify for Pell (just missed it by $300). We were gapped by a small amount....our FAFSA EFC was $5500 and, according to the calculator, our EFC via institutional methodology was in the $7-8000 range. Our portion will be $13,000, though.
Should I fill out a Special Circumstance form? Or should I call the FA office?</p>
<p>Another question. My son will be applying for some outside scholarships and a couple of them are pretty much guaranteed. On the school's website it states that depending on the type and amount of outside scholarship, grants or merit awards may be decreased. That kind of defeats the purpose of going to the work of applying for an outside scholarship, doesn't it? Do you think this only applies to specific types of scholarships? Wouldn't a scholarship normally replace a loan or decrease the family contribution if it exceeded the EFC? My daughter attended our state university. Her grant was not decreased because of outside scholarships.</p>