<p>Your FAFSA Correction has been processed and the data will be made available to the school(s) listed on your corrected FAFSA. The financial aid office at your school will contact you if additional information is required.</p>
<p>The Financial Aid Administrator (FAA) at your school has made corrections to your application. If you think you need to make additional corrections, please contact your FAA before doing so.</p>
<p>Your Student Aid Report (SAR), which contains a summary of your FAFSA information, is now available for you online. Review your SAR as soon as possible to see if any additional information or corrections may be needed.
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<p>and then it went on to give me links and numbers to call and so on.</p>
<p>So I looked at it and it said my EFC had changed from about ~17k to ~27k....</p>
<p>What would this mean for my FA? the two best offers I'm considering are ~19k EFC and ~22k EFC...could that change? If it doesn't change this year, would it change next year? my dad and I are so confused...</p>
<p>Both of the schools in question are also CSS schools...</p>
<p>That’s a big jump, I would call the schools in question. It could be a mistake or your estimated amounts were different. It doesn’t necessarily mean any changes especially if your FA was in merit awards not need-based. </p>
<p>I know someone that saw “corrections” and didn’t bother to look, and I admit, I would get them and get used to it being something small or the college even logging into your fafsa sometimes, and didn’t worry about it. BUT she was hit in the summer with a larger bill. </p>
<p>Just give the colleges a call and make sure your package is set. Print out your corrected fafsa and see what they changed from the old one. FA offices aren’t perfect, they can make mistakes also. My son’s first year, I had a shock also, but they made an error.</p>
<p>You need to start by looking to see what changes were made. Print out a copy of the last report before the changes, and then the corrected one – and go over it line by line to see what was changed.</p>
<p>You also need to figure out WHICH college made the change – what one college does will not necessarily impact another. </p>
<p>Once you see what was changed, your next step is to figure out why and where the numbers come from. It’s always possible that you made an error on the form that the college found and corrected, but it is also very likely that the college has made an assumption about assets & income that isn’t correct. Once you know what was changed and which college made the change, you can contact that office and ask to talk to someone who can go over the SAR with you and explain the reasons for the change.</p>
<p>It may or may not change the offers you already have in hand. It is very common for a college financial aid office to figure out the FAFSA changes on an internal worksheet, make you an offer based on that worksheet, and then sometime later making the actual changes to the FAFSA. So it possible that an offer you have will stand — but the numbers you have listed don’t quite make sense that way.</p>
<p>When I called fafsa this year, about 3 times, they were helpful and were able to tell me what colleges corrected my children’s fafsa, how many times, what they did, etc. Most were not colleges we were going to consider in the end, but they do it just in case. </p>
<p>I have used the phone although that can be busy at times and online chat twice.</p>
<p>All but one of my offers are need based. I’ll have my dad go over it with me and call…I don’t really understand all of the financial stuff because my dad owns his own business, and I never saw the completed form originally, my dad just told me what they said our EFC was after he first filled it out. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Also, slightly unrelated question that has just come up in my household but I don’t need to make a second thread…I know medical expenses are considered in FA calculations…but are legal expenses? Before anyone goes on the “you don’t have to worry about expenses cuz you’re gunna get rescinded” thing, I’M not the one in trouble. ugh… </p>
<p>I was kinda leaning towards the one merit offer anyways and these two developments might just solidify my choice…</p>
<p>Medical expenses aren’t reported anywhere on FAFSA. But if you have high out of pocket medical expenses you can request the school to make a special circumstances adjustment to reflect those expenses. </p>
<p>I *think *they are reported on CSS, so presumably they would be taken into account already for any institutional aid.</p>
<p>OK, it is VERY common for colleges to make changes to income reported by self-employed individuals and small business owners. Basically they will go over the schedule C or the CSS form for detailing business income with a fine tooth comb, and add back in a lot of legitimate business write-offs that the colleges feel are not appropriate for financial aid consideration. Things like travel expenses, depreciation, home-office deduction, etc. So that is what likely happened in your case. </p>
<p>I’d note that it is in the legitimate interest of small business owner to spend in a way that will minimize tax liability and strengthen their business, including reinvesting in the business and taking on many discretionary expenses to enhance the business. (Such as spending money on advertising). But obviously when a business owner makes a choice to spend more money on the business, that is reducing the take-home profit and it would be very possible for a financially secure business owner to effectively zero out their net income over the years their kids were in college – which is why college financial aid administrators are going to second-guess those business decisions. Otherwise they could be put in the position of effectively subsidizing the business growth of savvy business owners. </p>
<p>You may be right to opt for the merit offer, especially if your dad’s business income fluctuates from year to year – which would make need-based aid especially hard to predict.</p>