<p>I filled out a fafsa last yr using my dad as my guardian, we are poor barely making 20k a year and once the fafsa was processed, it took a month more because my school lost my papers and i wasnt notified, Then my fafsa was selected for verification and that took even longer to find out how much aid i was elligible for. Anywho, based on me being a dependent on my dad's income I recieved a EFC of 3,000 for the yr 05-06, but i only recieved $3,000 in pell grant and stafford subsidized loan. I was wondering if that seemed strange since my dad barely makes 20k per yr, and my EFC was only three thousand per year. My mom was not in teh picture because they are divorced and i was only legally adopted by my dad. My dad got very mad at me bc he said i shouldnt have put his name down and should have put myself as independent so that i could get more aid & bc he has really bad credit. Can I do that? in my school's website it says taht only if you were abandoned, or your parent died, taht meant that you were independent. I am thinking of filling out next yr's fafsa only on my name, but i really have no idea what to do? can anyone help or give me suggestions?</p>
<p>i forgot to mention that the total finaid package i recieved was for both the grant and loan combined, and my total tuition is about 20K per yr. thanks</p>
<p>If your EFC was $3000 and the COA was $20,000, then your need was $17,000. Either your school gaps- meaning they don't fill all your need, or they added in assets which increased your EFc.
Check out your financial aod offer, what did they show as student & family contribution.</p>
<p>With a peel grant, I am surprised they did not give any other aid!</p>
<p>You apparently are attending a college that does not guarantee to meet financial need. Otherwise, with that low an EFC, you should have received much more aid. Many colleges do NOT meet need, no matter how low your EFC.</p>
<p>I don't believe you could file as an independent. There is a very strict list of criteria you must meet, and you do not appear to meet those criteria. (There have been other threads where those criteria were listed, so you might do a search on this forum.)</p>
<p>I would suggest talking to someone in the Financial Aid department to see if there is any way you can get a better package.</p>
<p>Some schoold give money on first come first serve basis. If your papers were late, school might have run out of money. Second, if you are barely "in" at that school, meaning that your stats are much lower than mean scores, college might not care for you to be there. Very few schools do garantee to meet all your need. Many schools do preferrential packaging, meaning they will give more money to students they really want.
As said above, you should ask your school financial councelors what had happen.</p>