Ok so I’m gonna start college next week but I was thinking about all the aid I’m getting and it’s pretty good considering that I did a lot of stuff for my COA to go down (nothing illegal) but I’m reading all these questions about people who reported assets and all that stuff. First of all, when I did FAFSA, I based it all on the tax return paper. I did not see anything about assets. I think there was an option that said “some people do not need to state their assets because of low income”. My parents combined income is 37,000 for 4 people. That being said, it also said something about student’s income. This was 0 because I did not work. I’m reading that assets also include banks accounts??? What??? I don’t remember putting any of that down. My bank account has 3,000 dollars and half of it is from Social Security benefits since my dad has been unemployed since he has cancer. I’m so scared that I lied and will be thrown in jail. I did not mean to lie, it wasn’t my purpose. I was never selected for verification by my school or FAFSA.
You probably got an auto 0 EFC. The online system uses skip logic if assets don’t apply so you would never see that question.
No, I actually got an EFC of 808
I’m not sure what to do at this point.
If it would ease your conscience, you could go to the FA office and report it. More than likely, they will let it go. It would be considered your contribution.
Resubmit your FAFSA with corrections and inform your financial aid office.
We just did this with my D’s school because I found an error after the fact. Yes, our EFC went up, but being honest was the right thing to do. Other than having to pay a little more, nothing else bad happened – it was an honest mistake.
Or if it makes you feel better, go to the office first — explain your mistake and have them help you fill it out correctly. I’m not looking at it in front of me, but I’m pretty sure there is a line that explains that it wants a total of all cash, savings and checking accounts, followed by a line where it wants investments (like stocks, mutual funds) etc.
It could be that you over reported too. If you father is a displaced worker, you might have qualified for an automatic zero, and then assets are not reported. Or, if you needed to report assets but didn’t, you can make the corrections and then appeal the award to the FA office with the information that your father is out of work due to illness.
I think I’ll just ask them first when I get there. I was looking forward to only paying 1k for my first year but I guess that’s not gonna happen.
Would I have to take all my tax transcripts and stuff? I told my parents and they got kind of insulted that I suggested they have assets cuz we’ve been losing a lot of money this past year. I’m gonna need to sneak that stuff out.
With the income being less than $50k, you probably qualified for the simplified means test where assets aren’t counted. Your parents would also need to have filed a 1040a for 2014 taxes or you qualified for one of the means tested benefits such as free or reduced lunch. If you did qualify for the simplified formula, the skip logic of the online fafsa may not have asked for asset information at all depending on which state you live in.
The details for the simplified means test can be found on page 4 at this link:
http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/090214EFCFormulaGuide1516.pdf
^^yes read through this before you assume that you did anything wrong. No need to run to the aid office yet. You have very low income anyway, so nothing is going to be greatly affected, so you can ease your worries. You will not be in trouble for small errors, either.
You almost certainly qualified for simplified needs which means no assets entered.
Some years I qualified as auto 0 and some for simplified needs. I never put in my assets (and with auto-0 no income either, can’t remember for simplified needs).