<p>I am asking this for my girlfriend. She filled out her FAFSA for this year, and turned it in. At this time her calculated EFC was 02575. She used the IRS tool to pull her tax information directly from their database. Upon checking the college in which her financial aid was received, she found she no longer qualified for the pell grant because her EFC was too high. She found the school had made a "correction", and her EFC is now listed as 07024. She is wondering how the EFC would have jumped up so much. This year she has moved out of her parents house, and works full time as well as full time school. Obviously her yearly income has increased substantially (although she barely breaks even due to bills/school etc), could this have changed her EFC this substantially? I am confused as the first EFC value is so much lower then the second "corrected" value. Any help/clarification is appreciated!</p>
<p>She doesn’t fall into any of those questions. Her parents last year gave her an estimated 700 ~ 900 dollars last year, and less this year. She will not be able to go to school without the Pell Grant. Is there anyway to prove independence?</p>
<p>Also thank you for any help. She will go to her college financial aid office to talk about this as soon as they are open, which is next week. She is obviously pretty worried about this, as am I.</p>
<p>I ran her information through a EFC calculator, this calculator takes into account yearly expenses. Family made 60,000 no additional assets, she made 18,000 no additional assets. Her estimated, “cost of attendance” (taking into account room and board, books, transportation) was 15,940. This leaves her with 2,060 for an ENTIRE YEAR. Her estimated EFC is 00459 with a estimated pell grant of 3,860. How is this calculator so far off her fafsa with accurate information inputted? Is there any other way for her to qualify for independence, or do I have to marry her in order for her to have a higher education… . … . . . … … . .?</p>
<p>You’re doing something wrong. As a dependent student with that much income, her EFC could NOT be that low. there’s an assumption that a good bit of that income is supposed to go towards COA. </p>
<p>Her income isn’t for fun and games…her income is for rent, food, tuition, etc. so, of that 18k, there’s a logical expectation that a good bit of it should go towards COA…which includes housing, food, tuition, books, etc.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to why she and you think only a tiny bit of her income should go towards COA.</p>
<p>IF your GF make 18k as a dependent student anything over 6k (12K) will be calculated toward her EFC at a rate of 50% with the expectation that these funds would be used for college.</p>
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<p>It sounds as if you did something wrong. You must calculate the parents income and assets along with the students income and assets (~72k). If you go an EFC of 0459, it sounds like you just calculated the students income and did not include the parents.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters. With a family income of $60k and a student income of $18k, there is no way her EFC is low enough to be Pell eligible. You must have made an error of some sort in the calculator.</p>
<p>Unless she is 24 or meets one of the other criteria for independence, she is a dependent for FAFSA.</p>
<p>*Her estimated, “cost of attendance” (taking into account room and board, books, transportation) was 15,940. This leaves her with 2,060 for an ENTIRE YEAR. *</p>
<p>Leaves her with 2060 for what? </p>
<p>You’re saying that her COA for her school is $15940. That would be tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, personal expenses. If she needs a bit more, she can take a student loan. </p>
<p>It’s not the gov’t’s fault that her parents income plus HER income makes her ineligible for a Pell Grant. </p>
<p>Her family’s income alone gives her a small EFC, but then you add in her income to the student section, that puts her EFC quite high since much of her income is supposed to go towards to the cost of school.</p>
<p>With $60k parent income, I would not have expected the EFC to be low enough for ell even without the student income. A 7000 EFC seems very low for the combination of the 2. I would have expected it to be much higher.</p>
<p>* A 7000 EFC seems very low for the combination of the 2.*</p>
<p>I thought so, too.</p>
<p>It sounds like the OP is treating the GF as an independent student and just using her income. If he had done it correctly, her parents’ income alone would have yielded an EFC of about $6k…then when you consider the student’s income of $18k, that would have added several thousand more to the EFC…so the correct EFC would have likely been over $10k.</p>
<p>The only way to know what is going on is for your GF to speak directly with an aid officer who can pull her info and explain to her why her EFC is what it is.</p>
<p>It is only for the 2008 - 2009 year. She received the Pell Grant last year. It seems the only option open to here is either a student loan, or moving back in with her parents. Which… isn’t exactly possible. </p>
<p>You’re saying that her COA for her school is $15940. That would be tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, personal expenses. If she needs a bit more, she can take a student loan.</p>
<p>It’s not the gov’t’s fault that her parents income plus HER income makes her ineligible for a Pell Grant.</p>
<p>Her family’s income alone gives her a small EFC, but then you add in her income to the student section, that puts her EFC quite high since much of her income is supposed to go towards to the cost of school. "</p>
<p>We call know Sallie Mae loves their student loans!</p>
<p>American Opportunity Credit: an education tax credit</p>
<p>Go to IRS.GOV and look at Publication 970 to learn about this federal income tax credit. A credit of up to $2,500 against federal income taxes may be allowed if tuition of $4,000 was paid during the tax year.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean a Sallie Mae loan…I meant a Stafford Direct loan.</p>
<p>does she live alone? Maybe she needs to move into cheaper housing with a roomie to share living expenses.</p>
<p>how much is her tuition? How much is her share of her apt?</p>
<p>Even if you used an old calculator, you still made a mistake somewhere. Last year, when she qualified for Pell, what was HER income on THAT FAFSA (don’t guess).</p>
<p>Once more with vigor! Your girlfriend should be able to go line by line on her FAFSA from the original ( which she should have either saved as a PDF or printed out) and see where the correction was made. OR she can call the finaid department and ask them what was corrected. If the correction is accurate, that is that. If there is an error in the correction, the GF will need to provide documentation showing that it IS an error and why.</p>
<p>Just so you know…college finaid officers are REQUIRED to make changes to the FAFSA when THEY find a mistake between the taxes and the FAFSA filed. </p>
<p>So…first step…find out what the correction was…and see if it is accurate.</p>
<p>Without having that information, no one can help your GF.</p>
<p>Yep, she will do so, thank you thumper and all. Also, it seems a few friends of ours also were no longer eligible for the Pell Grant for the same reason. When they approached their financial aid officer with bill statements showing they pay for themselves, they were once more eligible, although still dependents. Anyone else have any experience with this?</p>