I recently submitted my FAFSA, but since then, my father’s amount in checkings/savings has changed significantly, as he bought a home. It is now over $30k less than reported on FAFSA. Since I cannot update FAFSA, will this make a big difference in how much financial aid I receive?
Thanks!
Yes, it will make a big difference. You said your family has $30k in a reportable asset (savings account) and they use the assets as of the date of filing.
You should have waited to file the FAFSA until after the house was purchased.
You can ask for the schools to make an adjustment, but they are under no obligation to do so. If your family’s income and other assets are so high you wouldn’t have received any need based aid anyway, then it won’t matter.
Will this make a difference in how much aid you receive? That depends on what colleges you are talking about. The vast majority don’t guarantee to meet full need anyway…so it might not make a difference at all.
You wrote this in August:
$30,000 additional savings would add only about $1700 to your EFC. Can you get a job that will make up that amount? Assets are assessed at about 5.6% of value…so $30,000 additional savings would be about $1700 more on your EFC.
By filing early, you might get something like SEOG that will equal that amount.
Maybe this was one of those times that waiting would have been wise. The FAFSA opened on October 1, and today is Oct 10. If your parent knew he was using money in accounts to buy a house, he could have waited to file FAFSA until the day after the money was out of the accounts.
You can ask each college for a special circumstances consideration based on the reduced assets.
And…your other threads indicate you are possibly looking at some private colleges. Keep in mind that schools using the CSS Profile sometimes use primary home equity to some degree in their calculations.