<p>Hello!</p>
<p>This is my first post here (I think! I tried to post this last night but I guess it did not work??), although I have lurked here trying to gather information for quite some time!</p>
<p>Our daughter has sorted thru her options and has chosen her school for next year (shes a HS senior). It is a private university-here in our state. It is the lowest tuition private school in the state and she will be receiving both academic and athletic scholarship money. Their school has a policy to only allow up to 50% of the cost of tuition and room and board to be given in scholarships- and thats what she will receive, leaving about $8000 a year left over for her to pay.</p>
<p>I am a unemployed displaced worker. I was accepted into our local WIA program and have been able to go to school- so I have been a full time student for over a year. So I am familiar with the FAFSA. At my school the financial aid office- this last term- did a special circumstances consideration- and I guess they were able to not count my unemployment income in my figures- as it was not money that was going to be there now (running out). It actually made me pell elgible although my husbands income was around $57,000 (we have 3 kids in the house).</p>
<p>So I did my form and my daughters a few days ago. I show pell elgibility even before special circumstance consideration (final amounts of unemployment still showing in my AGI) maybe due to being able to claim 2 in college? On my daughters I only claimed the 1 in college (think that correct) but she came back with a EFC of over 7000. I called to her financial aid office- and the lady there was very confusing- told me to go back in and put 0 where is says "mothers income from work" I had put in my unemployment there thinking I needed those lines to match our AGI. She thought that would be all I needed to do. I am skeptical because I think I need the AGI to be adjusted to not reflect my unemployment- that I no longer get! I did as she advised and now my daughters EFC shows 9523!</p>
<p>Any suggestions? Advice? I am most concerned because she would like to try to get work study $ and I think thats priority to pell elgible students? Is that correct? She needs all the help she can get as we are unable to help with much at this time (hopefully more by next year).</p>
<p>Thanks for you help!</p>
<p>The income from work line is used to calculate employment expense allowances such as Social Security and Medicare taxes, which unemployment recipients don’t incur, so it does make sense that lowering that field would actually raise the EFC. Using 1 as number in college for your D was correct - she counts on your FAFSA, but you don’t count on that line for hers. I’m pretty sure what you need to do now is to ask her school for professional judgement, as you did with yours, in order to lower her EFC based on the fact that your unemployment comp has run out. In fact, if you’re not eligible for a full Pell based on your FAFSA, you may want to repeat the process at your own school.</p>
<p>Yes, the difference in EFC between you and your daughter is mainly because you can put her as one in collage on your FAFSA but you cannot put a parent as one in college on hers.</p>
<p>The FA officer is correct. The income from work figure is supposed to be just that, income from work. It is not the same figure as the AGI. As sk8trmom said, that number is used in the EFC formula to calculate allowances for work related expenses such as such as FICA. Unemployment should not go there either on your FAFSA, or on your daughters. </p>
<p>You can ask both your schools for a special circumstances adjustment to reflect loss of benefits if the unemployment benefits are. It is at each schools’ discretion how they handle it.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply!</p>
<p>Am I correct in thinking that the EFC is going to be based on the AGI? When I mentioned that to the fin. aid lady she acted like I was silly! She also said they do not have any forms for special circumstances for the 2011/2012 year yet and she didn’t know when they would- told me to make the adjustment on the FAFSA “income” line and call back later if it didn’t work out as I expected. Oh! She also said that “who knows she might be elgible” after I told her the first EFC was 7300. I suspect maybe they do not bump into special circumstances alot or something.</p>
<p>They are in the midst of spring '11 stuff right now…when would you say would be my time to re-approach them about this. In IL they have a MAP grant- and she told me to update the FAFSA to show we filed taxes asap so she would have time to be considered for that as it cuts off early- so my other concern is that she will not be considered due to a 9523 EFC that will hopefully be lower once they do a review. Would it be common for them to do the review? My CC acted like it is a common thing- but this school was a mess about it.</p>
<p>One other thing…why do they even have the little box you mark if your a displaced worker? What is that for anyways?</p>
<p>The displaced worker box is to determine eligibility for 2 special formulas. Simplified needs (where assets are ignored, income must be below $50,000) and automatic 0 EFC (income must be below $31,000). </p>
<p>Your EFC is based on a combination of things. AGI, assets, student income and assets, allowances for taxes, FICA etc etc.</p>
<p>Make sure you are talking to an actual FA officer. I have found that sending an email gets me a response from an FA officer, rather than a student helper. Special circumstances reviews are at the school’s discretion and are not uncommon. (we had one once). SOme FA offices are more efficient than others. My daughter’s school is very efficient, helfull, and quick to respond to questions. My son’s schools was just awful.</p>