So my mom had an income of -5350 and an AGI of -8350 and she filed as head of household with her and myself. I only earned about 150$ in 2014. Any idea why I’m not getting an auto EFC of 0? It came back as 00002, and that’s all fine and dandy. I’m not complaining. But I’m just curious as to why it isn’t 0, since the income is negative. Also, we have little to no assets. The first time I submitted, I accidently marked her as single with all the same info. It came back as EFC of 0. When I noticed she actually filed head of household and changed her status, it came back EFC 2. Any ideas why?
Since she has a negative income, that can only happen because of credits or losses. FAFSA might be adding some of that back in. It also might just be a mistake.
Is that $2 difference going to make or break a college decision?
@kelsmom may be able to answer this.
OP, here is the EFC formula: http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/090214EFCFormulaGuide1516.pdf
Feel free to run the calculation by hand if you are concerned. Honestly, unless one of us was able to view your FAFSA submission, we wouldn’t be able to know if you accidentally entered in a figure incorrectly.
An EFC of 2 would mean you would get all but about $2 of the Pell Grant. But we can’t tell if there was an error in data entry. How do you have a negative income? It MIGHT be possible to have a negative AGI, but IIRC if you have a negative AGI you’re supposed to put down 0 on the tax form?
Some schools only give SEOG to those with 0 EFC, so a correction can mean more money.
The Pell amount is less with a 2 EFC, and mom2collegekids is correct that SEOG might be available with a 0 but not a 2 EFC.
Negative AGI is treated as 0 in the formula. I get 0 for an EFC using the info posted above. Assuming there is no alimony or child support or other untaxed income OP did not tell us about, the only thing I can figure is that numbers were entered incorrectly. My suggestion is to go into your FAFSA and ask to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Import your mom’s info directly into your FAFSA; do not change anything else. (Make sure your income info is correct, too - make sure you didn’t put in an extra 0). Both your mom and you will need to sign with your PINs, and you will need to submit. I am betting it comes back with a 0 EFC. Let us know.
Figured it out. I had accidentally put a 1 in a box while making the swap from single to HoH. In the students assets, where it asks about how much is in your account and etc. Making it 10, and then they added 20% of my savings to the efc. I.E. 00002. I found the mistake, changed it, and now my expected EFC is 0.
There you go! Glad you found it.