FAFSA CORRECTION MADE BY FINANCIAL AID OFFICER AT SCHOOL???

Paying for College
1

Hi,
So I am currently freaking out right now. I just got an email today saying “a financial aid officer at my school corrected my FAFSA.” I quickly logged into FAFSA to see the corrections made, and noticed my EFC had increased from 0 to 311. And this correction was also sent to the 9 other schools on that FAFSA transaction.

I know my EFC change isn’t drastic, but every dollar counts given my family’s financial situation. What stings is that I know this correction is wrong. Why? Because when we filled out FAFSA, all our financial information was transferred DIRECTLY from the IRS using the IRS retrieval tool. Nothing was typed in manually, so we couldn’t have “made a mistake,” and which also should correspond to our previous EFC of 0. But here’s another issue: because we used the IRS retrieval tool, all our financial information on the SARS report shows as “transferred from IRS,” meaning I can’t even see what change was made. I have looked through the information that is visible on the SARS report and nothing has changed from our previous report, so whatever the change made that increased our EFC should be part of the information showing as “transferred from IRS.”

This correction also came after 3 schools received the additional information they asked for, like copies of my parents W2 forms and tax returns.

I am frustrated even more because I can’t make another FAFSA correction to correct this correction because I can’t even view the information that shows as “transferred from IRS.”

I have read posts about financial aid offices making false corrections, and I really don’t wanna be screwed over by someone else’s mistake. I guess my question is does anyone know how to view information on SARS that shows as “transferred from IRS?” If I can view that information, I can be able to see the mistake made and have it fixed, or if its not a mistake (which I highly doubt) then I can at least understand what the error was.

I’ll be calling FAFSA tomorrow, but I am very stressed. I thought I was finally done with the whole “applying for financial aid” process. Now I am worried this new correction will affect or delay my aid offers. I have a financial aid deadline on the 15th, so please, if anyone has any ideas, I would heavily appreciate it.

2

Remember that not all of the financial information that was reported on your FAFSA, and not all of the information that affects your EFC, has been transferred directly from the IRS.

3

Call the financial aid officer at your school first- that’s who made the change & it’s likely to be easier to get hold of that person.

Be calm & polite- say you got the email & are trying to find out what the correction was. I get that you are worried / scared / mad- but take a deep breath. Whether it’s a correct correction or not you will get farther faster if you ask questions calmly and listen to the answers. Good luck!

4

Yes, the W2 box 12 could have shown that your parents had pre-tax retirement contributions during 2018 that you forgot to enter on the FAFSA under untaxed income.

You can reach out to the school and ask them what and why they corrected it.

A few hundred less in Pell Grant can be made up by you working part time now and working in the summer and by getting a work study job on campus.

5

The IRS retrieval isn’t the only source of info on your FAFSA.

Your family puts in numbers such as family size, number in college, pre-tax retirement, etc. so if any of those numbers were wrong, then that would cause a correction.

6

The family also enters any assets, child support, spousal support, untaxed income…anything that isn’t on the tax return.

7

My guess is that the difference is from unreported pretax retirement savings. The school saw it on the W-2 and updated the information on the FAFSA accordingly.

8

@“Shazi student 8” - did you every figure out what the change was and why it was made?