Just finished and submitted my FAFSA form for 2018-2019 college school year. I will be a freshman, and in my confirmation email I found out that the EFC for my parents was about $39,000.00 dollars, whereas their total yearly income is $32,000.00 and they do not have any assets, only a retirement plan worth $92,000.00. What can I do? Is this a big deal and should I be worried?
It is likely you made a mistake entering the information. Did you put your parents’ income in the student section? Did you add a zero or two to their income (do not put in cents)?
Yes, you need to be concerned if you expect financial aid from schools.
Is the retirement plan in an IRS approved plan such as an IRA or 401k? If so, you are not supposed to report it on the FAFSA. If it is in, say, a savings account, then it is considered an asset available to pay for college.
Check all the numbers you entered carefully, and if there is any part you are unsure you completed correctly, download the free book Edvisors Guide to the FAFSA (Google it)
It sounds like you either goofed someplace (like added an extra zero to a field)…or that your parent retirement accounts are regular savings…or that you entered actual retirement accounts as assets.
Which??
Also make sure you only put your parent info in the parent section…and not also in the student section.
check number of dependents also
It is an IRA, I think that’s where I made my mistake. Thanks for your help! I’ll try and correct it as soon as possible.
Once you find your mistakes, you may panic because you cannot change them. Don’t worry. Your FAFSA is frozen for a couple business days for initial processing, but you will be able to correct it later in the week.
Okay, thanks. After making corrections will I need to wait a few business days for it to process again?
Wait until this submission processes. Then make the corrections…and submit again.
Yes…it will take a few days for the new submission to process once you submit it.
Even if the IRA shouldn’t have been entered, the EFC still sounds too high doesn’t it? I think they consider 20% of your parents income and 6ish % of your parents assets as your EFC (or something along those lines), so that doesn’t even add up to $39,000 including the IRA. I’d go through it line by line again and make sure everything else is correct also. I made a mistake reading the directions on my daughter’s FAFSA, and I couldn’t figure out how to correct it until I actually called the FAFSA helpline, and they were nice enough to go line by line with me to help me figure out where I had made the error. My mistake was the opposite of yours - we had some assets that I knew we had to report, but I couldn’t find where I was supposed to report them - I found out that I was reading the question “Do your parents have assets of over $25,000” as $250,000!! So this can be tricky even for adults.
If the student put the IRA info in as income…that would make,the difference.
OR if the student put the IRA as a student asset…that would make the difference too.
Or if the student entered the parent info twice…in both the parent and student sections…
This student needs to go LINE BY LINE on what they submitted…and see where the mistakes are.
You can log back in and make corrections to any submitted application. From the home page it says Log In to make corrections. Once logged in choose the school year tab and select make correction link. It will take you page by page until you get to the area you need to make changes otherwise just keep reviewing each page selecting “next”. Be sure to go all the way to the end of the application to submit. You will get an email confirmation it is in process. It can take about a week to go through the system and then a few more days for your school to receive the updated application. You will get an email notification when this occurs as well. I usually forward it to the FA dept with a follow up to be sure.
You can only make corrections AFTER the fafsa has been processed.