Hey all,
This morning I received an email from the US Department of Education (Federal Student Aid) that notified me that a Financial Aid administrator made changes to my FAFSA.
First thing I did after I saw this email was call the school that I enrolled in to find out what was corrected… and they said that they did not make any changes to my FAFSA. This is where the morning roller coaster began. Next thing I did was call Federal Student Aid hoping to find out what college made the correction. The person that I talked to was utterly useless as I waited 15 minutes for the person to locate my FAFSA only to have him tell me that he does not know who made the corrections.
After this, I called all the schools I got accepted to and asked them if they made any corrections. All except one said they did not make any corrections. The one did not pick up the phone and I left a voicemail for them. Then, I decided to call the university that I enrolled in again because I remembered that they requested my and my parent’s tax transcripts. These are the only documents they ever requested (this is a school that uses both the CSS and FAFSA btw). However, I assumed that the tax transcripts are a form of verification and therefore wanted to ask if all the information that was reported on the FAFSA matched the transcripts. They said that they gave me my official award on April 9th (which I was aware of) and that they never made any changes to my FAFSA. They also mentioned that the only reason they would make a change to my FAFSA was if there was a discrepancy between the reported income on the FAFSA and the transcript in which case they would request W-2’s/1099 forms. Other schools required every financial aid applicant submit these forms.
Do I have anything to be worried about? I looked through the student aid report with the corrections that were supposedly made by a financial aid administrator and saw that the only thing that was corrected was line 89: How much did Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent) earn from working in 2016? On the FAFSA that I sent to colleges, the reported amount was roughly 30k. On the one that was corrected by an administrator, the reported amount was 15k. They lowered my mother’s income, but my EFC somehow increased by $300.
Following because same thing happened to us last week. We didn’t even submit the FAFSA to the school my son is attending because we knew not to expect aid from it. Which means the change must have been initiated by one of the other schools to which he applied. Hoping for an explanation that makes sense.
We got the same notification this morning… checked with the school she chose and they didn’t do it.
Wow! I thought I might have been the only one in this situation… @Schadret @gclsports
This is normal. If there are discrepancies, they need to be fixed. Doesn’t really matter who fixes them. Now, if there is a true error in the change they’ve made, by all means contact them. If they are correct and it changes your Efc then that is just life. The school may or may not change your financial aid. Probably not this year if you already accepted it. Next year just make sure everything is accurate and you won’t see any changes.
Does it say somewhere what line was changed so I can determine whether I think it was correct or not?
^^^No, you have to find it yourself. Go through it line by line. That was my experience.
BTW, the correction does not even have to be due to an error in the original. They can change it any way they want to reverse-engineer the aid they want to give you. That happened to us. The school used “professional judgement” and wanted to give my kid more aid. To do that, they had to “correct” the Fafsa to align with what they wanted to give. I asked a friend who is a FA consultant about this. She said that they are allowed to do anything they want, and that if the family made the same change it would be considered fraud – but the college is allowed to do it.
I am sorry if I was not clear enough, but the school that I am going to attend flat out told me “we did not see any discrepancies, and never made any changes to my FAFSA. So you did a good job.” My family and I sent them tax transcripts. The change was made by a school (still don’t know exactly which one) that I am not attending. @turtletime
The change that was made was line 89: How much did Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent) earn from working in 2016? On the FAFSA that I sent to colleges, the reported amount was roughly 30k. On the one that was corrected by an administrator, the reported amount was 15k. They lowered my mother’s income, but my EFC somehow increased by $300.
“Reverse-engineer,” “Professional judgement,” “correct.” Lol colleges lower the family income of the student that they really want? @brantly
In my case they did not reduce the earned income. We had made a one-time, large cash withdrawal that artificially increased our income by a lot. We used that withdrawal to pay large medical bills. We proved it to the FA office. They then “corrected” our Fafsa by moving that withdrawal from the unearned income column to a different column (I don’t remember which one) that doesn’t count as income for FA purposes.
As for your situation, one of the colleges made the correction, but it doesn’t look like it will affect you in any way. Your award from the college you are attending remains the same, right?
When I called the college that I am attending, all they said was that my FAFSA has been verified by the tax transcripts that I sent and that they never made changes to my FAFSA and that they gave me an official award notice (which matched there estimated award notice based off the numbers reported on the FAFSA and Profile). There was no mention of my award being affected because they claim to have verified everything as the award is “official.” @brantly
So there’s nothing to worry about.
@brantly you asked the financial aid office for this. You provided documentation, and this was a one time increase that was also used to pay large medical bills.
That is VERY different than the school making a change without the student’s prior knowledge, hichnis what happened to this OP.
The colleges are required to make changes if they see inconsistencies. BUT colleges do not just randomly make changes so they can award more need based aid (as you posted upstream). When this type of change is made, it’s because the student/family has requested professional judgement or a special circumstances consideration and provided sufficient documentation to make this change a possible one that the financial aid officers can do.
In terms of this poster…some college saw something that they felt wasn’t right for some reason. But it’s not the college you are attending. Since YOUR college has no issue, I think you are OK.