<p>I recently found out that I have to submit a Verification Worksheet for Federal Student Aid.
What exactly is this? I mean I heard certain people get chosen for this review. Why me?</p>
<p>Anyways, as I was going through and reviewing my information to write down, I noticed I put down a completely wrong number for parent's income tax. A while back I wasn't sure which tax to put down, and today I saw they actually tell me what line it was. I didn't see it before... I put somewhere about $7,800 while it was actually $1,288. Now I'm really worried.
I submitted and now it says my efc is 2149. Before it was 700 or something... The income tax was the only thing I changed. </p>
<p>Will my aid change drastically now? What'll I do?? :(
I'm stressed again... I'm right aren't I? My aid will be much less now... sigh...</p>
<p>Yes, it will change. You will be eligible for around $1400-1500 less in pell grant money. Whether it affects any other aid will depend if any other aid in your package had an EFC cut off lower than your new EFC (for instance our small state grant has an EFC cut off of 1700 so in our state an increase from 700 to 2100 would cause a loss of the state grant).</p>
<p>The reason your EFC went up is that tax reduces the amount of income that is used to calculate the EFC. With a much lower tax figure the amount of income used in the formula will be higher.</p>
<p>You need to get the verification data in ASAP. You are lucky that they actually do your initial aid offer before you have submitted your verification data. At my daughters school they will not even look at the FA until the verification data is received which can mean some limited aid (such as WS and SEOG) is depleted before a verified students aid award is prepared.</p>
<p>It says I must submit all applicable signed tax returns and W-2 forms.
Exactly which forms are they? Are the forms from the 1040? A single page or other? </p>
<p>Sorry if I’m being ignorant but my parents don’t speak English so well, so I have to figure this all out on my own.</p>
<p>The tax returns are the tax returns (1040 if that was what was submitted). The W2s are the forms you (or your parents) get showing income earned from a job.</p>
<p>Look and see what the school is asking for. My daughter is usually only asked for is a signed copy of the actual tax return which is just the a page or two (not all the supporting schedules), and the W2s.</p>
<p>I noticed I put down a completely wrong number for parent’s income tax.</p>
<hr>
<p>I often see people selected if they report taxes paid as too high based on the AGI. I would imagine the software at the processor flags these situations. And yes, the updates needed when taxes paid are reported too high can make a very big difference. It is VERY important to follow directions carefully in order to receive the correct aid package. I suggest the direct IRS tax transfer whenever possible.</p>
<p>I just called the financial aid office, and they told me they will update it once they review it.
I just hope it will not be a big difference in my aid package.</p>
<p>How long did it take to get your financial aid package after you sent the verification papers? I was also chosen for verification and I am still waiting for my daughter’s package to arrive.</p>
<p>lkf, time to call. The squeaky wheel gets the grease … you have waited, which you should have. However, it’s been long enough now that you get to start calling to find out when you might expect verification to be complete.</p>
<p>I called them today and they told me that they have so many verification papers to sort through - 30% of their students. Huh? Aren’t they giving money out already? How many families must be waiting? Doesn’t that put us “waiters” at a financial disadvantage? </p>
<p>Anyway, I am told that I should know something by the end of June, which seems very late to me. They received my information on May 27. Should it take an entire month to review? </p>
<p>It is not unusual for verifications to take 6-8 weeks. Colleges tend to be pretty lean in areas like financial aid staffing, and verification requires collecting, filing, and reviewing thousands and thousands of pieces of paper. It is extremely labor intensive. Depending on how the office is set up, most aid officers are either doing MANY things at once (wrapping up prior year, awarding summer - very, very manual for summer, verifying and awarding next year, counseling students, staffing orientations, etc, etc). If they aren’t doing it all, one person is doing ALL the verifications … even more difficult. Some offices actually outsource their verifications. Offices like mine verify more than 30%. It is not quick or easy, and it is something that just gets done when it gets done. Sounds harsh, but believe me, the staff is always busy with something. I cannot speak for all schools, but mine has a financial aid priority deadline & aid is awarded based on dates of receipt of FAFSA, verification documents, etc. If deadlines are met, the aid is “there” to award … although right now, we are holding off on packaging because we have to get our upper level administration (like TOP level) to approve the necessary funding to meet our needs for awarding those who met the deadlines … because the need this year is greater than even we could have predicted.</p>
<p>They did ask for many documents, including tax returns with schedules, 1099’s, W-2’s, paycheck stub, etc. They also invited me to send a letter of explanation re: unemployment, which I did. I’m sure that it would take some time to plow through it.</p>
<p>I’m worried that there won’t be any financial aid money left when they finally get done with the verification process. Do you think that they might tentatively plan to give her the same amount that they gave her last year? Or, do they just portion out financial aid as they go and if you are at the bottom of the pile, you are out of luck? </p>
<p>Thankfully, more than half of D’s aid was merit-based.</p>