<p>Alright so I'm transferring this fall to a four year college. Based upon my financial aid from last year I thought I would get some nice grant aid. However after looking at my award my grant aid seems very low. My sister, who's going to community college, has also received her award letter. Her EFC score is 1300 points lower than mine. The only difference between us is that I worked, making a mere 4800. But according to their calculations my income only made a 40 points difference, so it doesn't explain the huge gap. Both of us used the IRS retrieval tool and have gone through verification. There's no way that this could be right. Is it possible that someone made an error here? Please don't give me a dumb answer. I haved looked at this and analyzed it well and it just doesn't make sense.</p>
<p>If you only made $4800, it should not make any difference to your EFC at all as that would be below the student protected income allowance. Unless of course you had any assets at the time you filed FAFSA. If you reported assets, that would make a difference.</p>
<p>If your EFC generated by FAFSA is 1300 higher than your sister’s, and there was no difference in assets (and you only made $4,800 in income), then the most likely thing is that either you are your sister made a mistake on your FAFSA. I suggest you print out your SAR from FAFSA and ask your sister to do the same and compare them to see where they are different.</p>
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<p>If your four year school does not guarantee to meet the full need of all accepted students, this is very possible. Many times, grant aid is given to incoming freshmen first as such schools. Does your state have guaranteed merit awards for lower income students?</p>
<p>What was your EFC this year?</p>
<p>Do you have money in SAVINGS??? If so, that would matter.</p>
<p>What was your EFC last year?</p>
<p>What was the size of your grant last year? </p>
<p>Have you ever received grants OTHER than Pell?</p>
<p>In previous years, you may have received a larger Pell and/or other fed grants (like SEOG). Your new school may not have given you SEOG, since that isn’t a given. </p>
<p>And, as Thumper mentioned, often tranfer students don’t get as much aid…if the extra aid was from the SCHOOL and not the gov’t.</p>