Hi, I’ve been scouring the Internet recently to find someone else in my position. According to my SAR, my EFC is 233712, and that’s after I found an error in my answers that made it over 260000. I have one parent, and their income is under $200k. We have one home and a bit in stocks, but no other assets. Is it possible I have made other errors in my FAFSA, or could this be my actual EFC? It seems a bit astronomical to me after reading some other discussions. Thanks.
I think there is a mistake unless your stocks are really high. The EFC is usually not more than income, especially with limited assets (one home).
You are talking a big error numerically to get that EFC, so look it over for extra zeros. Unless the assets are significant. Did you (student) fill it in, or the adults?
That sounds off to me based on our income and EFC. Do you have assets in your name like a trust?
I’m fairly certain our stocks are not that high for it to affect it so significantly, and yes, I was the one who filled it out. I think it’s in my best interest to go over it completely again in a focused environment with my father. Thank you all, just wanted to make sure!
Common mistakes?
Putting parents’ income in the student section
Including the entire 401k amount when you should only include the amount contributed during the tax year (2016)
Having a 401k or IRA rollover and not checking the box that the rollover is excluded from income.
Extra 0’s so $10,000 becomes $100,000
Entering some items on two lines
Entering assets on the student section when they should be parent assets
Good luck on your search for the error.
If anyone sees this, thanks again for the suggestions. After spending about an hour completely redoing the FAFSA with tax-record in hand, my EFC is around 83000. Unfortunately this has disqualified me for any financial aid from the universities I’m admitted to, but at least seems to be a much more “reasonable” or realistic calculation.
You must have significant assets to have a a FAGSA EFC that high on $200,000 income…or was that income amount BEFORE taxes?
Is this a family of 2…one parent, one kiddo?
Did you link to the IRS data retrieval tool for your dad’s taxes? If so…any chance he did an IRA or TSA rollover in 2016?
To get to 83000 efc you really would know that FAFSA is a pointless exercise. It is really worth having parental input in this scenario, did your parents even want you to apply? Do they actually know you filled it in? You had access to all their documentation, investments, retirement/ira/401k/pension, as well as income, information? You say have one surviving parent with an income of 200k and no assets?
@thumper1 My greatest missed error in my first filing was including total savings, cash, house, car, retirement plans — basically, our estimated total worth — in the assets question/box.
I tried several times to use he IRS Link Tool and I put in our correct information several times but failed to link it every time.
@Sybylla I chose for myself to file; my father never knew about the FAFSA and still doesn’t know what it really is. This is my college process and I am preparing for independence… I chose to file because every school I applied to recommended/requested that I file, and what possible harm could it do me to file?
what possible harm could it do me to file?<<<<<<
So far, you haven't successfully even filed it as you haven't managed ti import IRS data? You are doing it behind your dad's back? Then you like as not have no idea about how his assets are managed.
<<<<<<<
I am preparing for independence…
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Does your independent self have $200k+ to pay for college? If not, where will the money come from?
@Sybylla The IRS import will for whatever reason not connect for me despite entering my information correctly, to this day. The website says it is ‘unable to connect’ and to try various troubleshooting methods or try again later.
I sat down with my father one day for an hour and we went through each question individually and read each ‘tip’ given on the website for each question. We did so with his 2016 tax return in his hands. He was present during the entire FAFSA process, and encouraged it, but all he know about it is that it is a financial aid calculator. And when it comes to financials, since our family is literally just him and I, he is 100% transparent, and there is nothing to hide anyway really since I see all he owns/all the business he does.
@mom2collegekids My “independence” comment was referring to how most students just leave the FAFSA and related tasks to their parents to complete while not paying attention to the process and steps and related financials at all. In my case, I am the one filling out the information, with assistance from my father, and going through the tool by myself.
Gaining independence for financial aid purposes is extremely unlikely.
I never said I want to gain independence from my father for financial aid… I wanted this to be a learning experience and an exercise in independence by choosing to file by myself, and have little involvement from my parent. That is all I meant, @ everyone-on-this-thread. I did NOT mean legal or financial independence! Purely the idea of acting independently, because isn’t that what adults do? I won’t have my father at college with me so why should I have him do everything for me now?
There is a student section of the FAFSA for the student to fill out, and there is a parent section for the parents to fill out. It is not being independent for you to fill out the parents’ section. There is no filing by yourself.
Honestly, I do my children’s FAFSA and taxes. I try to include them but it is very difficult as they are away at school when it is time to do the forms. There is no way we could do the reverse and have them do my section of the FAFSA or my taxes. The FAFSA information on assets, bank balances, 401k contributions is info I have available and they do not. I’m still a signer on their bank accounts (have been since they were opened when they were babies) so it is easy for me to fill in their sections. Their W2s are sent to our home address because students tend to move a lot and we didn’t want things to get lost.
Next year my D#2 will file her own taxes because she’s graduating and getting a permanent address and job. I’m sure she’ll still need help, especially since she’ll still have scholarship income to put on the forms and she doesn’t know how that works since up till now, she’s been a dependent and her Kiddie Tax rate is based on my tax bracket.
You really shouldn’t try to do the parent section of the FAFSA on your own. There’s a place at the end for your dad to electronically sign. I also think there’s a section that says you’re acknowledging that you haven’t given your log in info. to others.
Have you gotten it straightened out or does your EFC still seem really high for your income and assets?
@austinmshauri My father actually did sit in the room with me the whole time and read all the tax return information aloud so I could correctly fill it out online, and he ‘signed’.
After doing this a second time with closer examination and reading of the FAFSA tips-sidebar, my EFC lowered to about 82000, which at least seems more reasonable. We don’t have any assets but have a single income of about $180,000. Still, because it was more than most college’s total expenses, we didn’t receive any financial aid or gift aid, but we felt that number was somewhat more fair.