DS is going into sophomore year. The costs have risen slightly for this upcoming year, and EFC is almost exactly same as last year; our financial info on FAFSA is pretty consistent, we do not have to enter any assets.
Anyway, I was expecting his Pell Grant to be close to his freshman year, but school just released awards and the Pell Grant has gone down almost a thousand dollars.
I had checked some Pell Grant tables, and they also show amount I had expected.
So I was wondering how does the school determines amount of Pell Grant awarded? Do they go by the EFC on the FAFSA or do they just use this as a guideline?
What constitutes almost? What was your EFC Last year? What is your EFC this year? a few $$ can move you from one bracket to another and reduce your award
What is your EFC? What is the award amount?
What was your EFC last year?
What is your EFC this year?
Are you sure that your FAFSA hasn’t been amended or changed causing a higher EFC?
Perhaps 401k or IRA contributions added back upon verification?
Do you still have the same number of students in college? I thought your daughter was almost finished?
@laralei Are you certain that EFC is still “almost the same”? Or do you mean that income is “almost the same”?
If EFC is almost the same, then the Pell shouldn’t have dropped that much, I don’t think.
BUT…if the number of students in college changed (DD no longer in school)…then EFC would go up.
Can you go in and check to see if an adjustment was made on the FAFSA EFC?
Edit…I went back and looked at past threads, and it appears that your DD was having some issues…so does that mean that she’s no longer going to school? If that’s the case, then the “child in college” count would reduce to 1.
Thanks all for your input.
EFC this year is 1471, last year was 1472.
Also, without going into too much detail, DD took medical leave this past spring semester; she attended but was short the full course load… She will, hopefully, finish her degree either this fall or spring 2017. Depends on if she can get the last courses. She will be classified as half time.
Originally, when I did the FAFSA she was not entered as a college student for the 2016/2017 term, but the school told me to go in and change that on the FAFSA as she will still qualify for financial aid for the semester she attends, just don’t know exactly when in this upcoming school year.
I had assumed all of this would have an affect somewhere, but the EFC on the SAR ended up for DS as listed above.
The Pell Grant from his school appears to be in line w/ only one college student.
That is why I asked if the schools determine the Pell Grant or it is based off the FAFSA.
Call the school’s FA office to make sure that they have the latest info that there will be two in college.
There is no wiggle room…the school must give fed Pell funds based on your FAFSA EFC and the Pell eligibility schedule as long as they believe the numbers are correct.
Pell should be $4,366 with both EFCs listed above.
Sounds to me like your award was based on your FAFSA prior to the update you made. The school probably needs to repackage based on the new EFC. Call & talk to someone.
Yes, I had planned on calling the school, but wanted a better understanding of the Pell Grant and the school’s role. I thought it should be based off the FAFSA, but wanted to be sure.
One last thing, if anyone would care to comment.
Daughter just started working full time end of June, there is a lot of mandatory OT during the summer months… If she continues with this and doesn’t go back to school until Spring 2017, then we won’t be claiming her as a dependent as she will not meet the criteria for a qualifying child just on her income.
I have her listed as household member attending college on the FAFSA, but IF the above happens, (there is no guarantee, she is all over the place these days), then how would that affect the Pell Grant DS would have received?
The projections for the 2016/2017 year on FAFSA are really hard to determine at this point in time.
Is your 1471 based on having 2 kids in college. If it is and your daughter does not attend, your EFC will be more, reducing your son’s Pell.
If your daughter is working full time living in your home and you are proving more than half of her support she is a number in your household, but not a number in college.
If she is not in college, your EFC will change, which means your son’s Pell will change.
Thought I had posted this already, but not there. So again.
@sybbie719 I appreciate your response and I do understand how the EFC and Pell Grant amounts would change under the above circumstances.
However, should DS be awarded the higher Pell Grant based on current FAFSA projections for 2016/2017, what happens in Jan when we file our taxes and those projections do not occur as anticipated. DD will not be attending college or she made too much money to be considered a dependent so reduces our household number.
DS would have already have been awarded the higher Pell Grant amount, do we just end up paying that back?
I would recommend sending an email to @kelsmom If the school believes that they overaward your son, he will have to repay the monies
If your D is dependent by FAFSA rules, she is included in HH size and # in college for the year … the fact that she made a bunch of money & you won’t claim her on your taxes is irrelevant.
As far as the “what if” for her going to college … talk to your S’s aid office about that.
Just thought I would provide an update.
After spending a couple of l hours on the phone w/ the college and FAFSA, I finally got an answer as to why the the Pell Grant was higher than expected based on the SAR.
Apparently, I had filled out a Dependent Student Verification form when we first filed; forgot all about this.
A few months later, when I updated the FAFSA, the school disregarded the FAFSA updates, there were 2, and based the Pell Grant off of the original documentation.
Maybe by the time our last one goes to school, I might actually understand the process, or not.
Pell was higher? I thought you said it was lower than the prior year?
Oops, I had a longer paragraph initially, then when I shortened it I didn’t edit it properly. Should have read:
“After spending a couple of hours on the phone w/ the college and FAFSA, I finally got an answer as to why the Pell Grant was LOWER than expected based on the SAR.”
I was just really surprised the school kept insisting the FAFSA website did not have the correct information and I needed to call them to get the correct SAR.
When I called back and told Financial Aid I was told by FAFSA to file a complaint against the school, I was finally given a clear explanation. 
Wow, once again, the folks on the FAFSA line are over-stepping their bounds. I am not sure on what grounds you would base a complaint against the school. You completed verification, then you changed something on your FAFSA … you can’t just change something after verification. The school is going to continue to use the verified transaction, because that is the one on which the verification was done. I just love how the assumption is always that the school did something wrong.
So everyone knows: If your info was verified & you have a change, you have to let the school know … and you will have to complete a new verification form. Info cannot be changed after verification … if the change is legitimate, re-verification is required.
Well, I honestly think both parties could have handled it better.
When I explained to the fin aid office at the school about the changes and when they occurred, the fin aid person just kept insisting the FAFSA website was wrong, they had the wrong data on the SAR. The last update they were sent from FAFSA was not the number I was seeing on line. It was, the school just wasn’t using it.
Then when I spent even more time dealing w/ FAFSA, they finally just transferred me to a automated message about filing a complaint against the school.
Granted, I had forgotten about the Student verification, but you would think there would have been an easier process for dealing with this.
From start to finish between being on hold, looking at websites, doing call backs, etc., I spent a good 3 hours on this.