Last year I didn’t do DRT and didn’t get selected for verification
Are you saying most people just use the DRT instead of filling it out manually?
If you’ve been flagged for verification check your email. The college will tell you what paperwork they need. I don’t think correcting the FAFSA will unflag your account. You’ll have to turn in whatever the school requires in order for financial aid to be processed.
I don’t know if most people use the DRT. We do because it’s easier. But our taxes are pretty straightforward.
Did your parents file a joint tax return? If so, you can go back into your FAFSA and use the DRT, I believe.
Since it sounds like you are already enrolled in your college, you could walk over to the financial aid office and ask them any questions about your verification. You could also ask about using the DRT (if your parents filed a joint U.S. tax return) instead of using a tax transcript. The financial aid advisor should be able to help you.
Using the DRT will import the tax information directly into the FAFSA. Less chance to make mistakes and the college then might not need a tax transcript to verify income.
If your parents filed a joint 2018 tax return, you should be able to do DRT.
If you had no income in 2018 and didn’t file a tax return, you will probably have to fill out a non filing form for the school and maybe have to get a nonfiling verification letter from the IRS, if the school requires it.
I believe for FAFSA household members other than children, they have to live with you and be supported more than 50% during the aid year.
IRS rules are a bit different and the tax year is also different from the FAFSA aid year.
For DRT do you have to have some kind of credentials to login and use it and also if I use the DRT will I be I selected for verification or will I still have to do verification even if I do the DRT now
I myself personally cannot use the DRT because I do not have a tax return filed
Does anyone happen to know around which month colleges tend to do the verification process?
You are worried about verification and you shouldn’t be. Some schools verify EVERY fafsa, so every student has to be prepared to justify their information. If your parent’s tax information has 7 dependents, and the FA office doesn’t agree with that number, they’ll make the adjustment to your FAFSA.
Colleges do the verification as they process the financial aid. They are doing them constantly. Someone could file a FAFSA right now for the current school year and they could have information verified.
Yea I’m not worried about it since you got like a 1/3 shot of getting chosen anyways but what you are saying is that when they verify the aid they will immediately process it so verification won’t cause any extra delays of me getting the aid? The part I’m concerned about if verification causes all the aid not verified to get disbursed first and the people getting verified get it last so there may be a chance to get no aid?
If schools give a preference for aid to those who file first, they will use the date of filing, not of verification unless you do not respond to the verification requests.
Can a school run out of FA (SEOG, work study)? Sure but you’ve filed in October so you should receive the full package. If your situation hasn’t changed much since last year you should expect about the same.
It is unlikely, although not impossible, that updating the number from 7to5 will result in being selected for verification. Typically, that would not prompt selection.
I suggest going to the aid office & talking to an aid officer. Ask if you should have your parents use the DRT, and ask about your grandparents as household members. Getting the information from your own school aid office is always best. You’ll feel much better after you do this … that stress will be alleviated.
There are so many changes possible on your Fafsa. That’s not generally what triggers a mandatory verification. It’s a requirement the school must fulfill, not challenging your own FA info.
You are worrying so very much about the verification and could have initiated your response already. Makes us wonder why the delay.
If they allocated $$$ to you, it’s allocated to you. If you delay, I suppose you could miss some deadline and your status be changed. Why not just submit what they ask for and be started?
Tell FA you misunderstood number in family. It is possible that changes your bottom line FA, but as others said, not significantly. Your explanation here (grandparents on IRS forms) makes sense to me.
Just do it.
@lookingforward I’m not delaying anything since it says on the SAR that the school will send me an email sometime in the future of what materials are needed at least now I know some more info thanks to this thread. Thanks to all who pitched in
Don’t forget to check your email spam folder. Very often, students “find” emails there regarding verification when it is very late in the game. So do check often. The email address used to send you info probably is not in your contacts. Some ISPs will send that right to spam.
Once (if) you get a request for additional documentation…send it ASAP…very ASAP. If you need a tax transcript, your parents need to request it now. That way you will have it.
If you are asked for verification info, your aid will not be finalized and given to you until you send in what the schools request.
And some schools don’t do the verification requests until much later in the spring.
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Any money that your parents send them while they are living elsewhere is irrelevant.
It would be very difficult for your parents to show that during that 3-5 months that they’re providing 51% of their support.
I would say…no, you can’t count them.
Here’s my take as I have a freshman and sophomore kids this year. I helped them filled up their FAFSA. Both of my and my husband’s parents live with us 365 days for several years now. To say we have a full house is an understatement Anyways, we did put them as part of our household. And yes we claim them as dependents. I am not sure how the the feds do their eval of EFC but its only my and my husband’s taxes were submitted to fafsa. I’m thinking fafsa can get additional information from the taxes we filed yearly.
I don’t think it is irrelevant, as it goes to providing at least 51% of their support. One of the requirements for FAFSA is that the household members are supported by the ‘FAFSA parent’ and are part of the household. There is not a requirement that the grandparents are in their household beds for 365 nights a year, just that it is their home.
Are you under the impression that the finances of grandparents who are included as members of the parents’ household on FAFSA or are claimed as tax dependents on a parent tax return should or might be considered when the FAFSA EFC is calculated?
@kelsmom provided the info that is relevant in terms of including the grandparents. In addition to providing support, to be members of the household for FAFSA purposes, the grandparents also must be residents of the home…see post 5.
Yes, these grandparents can be dependents on the parent tax return. But they have to actually live in the home to be considered members of the household. These grandparents come here 3-5 months a year. They live in another country most of the time. I can’t see how they would be considered members of the household.
BUT remember also, even IF the are considered household members, this really isn’t going to impact need based financial aid much if at all.
As noted by @kelsmom this poster should walk down to the financial aid office, and tell them the situation. That grandparents are with the family 3-5 months a year and live elsewhere the rest of the time…and that the parents provide the bulk of their support. The financial aid office will tell the student what to do.