<p>Is it possible for someones efc to go down if you did not make any changes to your fafsa? Happened to a friend of mine. Rec'd an email that the fafsa changed and her efc went down, but did not change anything and does not see that anything was changed?</p>
<p>Yes. I suppose that is possible. If a financial aid officer sees an error on the FAFSA, I believe they are required to correct it. Your friend can go into the FAFSA website and compare her printout (hope she has one) to see what has been changed.</p>
<p>Yes, it can. FInancial aid officers are permitted to change FAFSA numbers that they see as errors as Thumper says. We’ve had posters report this. Recently one school changed the number of dependents and number in college on one poster’s FAFSA resulting in an increase.</p>
<p>So they are making the changes based on what - the irs data retrieval or return transcript? Guess Im confused on what information they could change? She does have the original report and will check it out. </p>
<p>The school has your tax return via the data retrieval tool. If there is an inconsistency, the school will correct to align with the tax return. It could be anything…check line by line.</p>
<p>Did your friend have to submit any documentation to the school? If so, something was probably picked up by the aid officer as being incorrect on the FAFSA. If your friend finds the difference, let us know what it is.</p>