Hi new user here, I applied to three schools UTA (the University of Texas at Arlington), UTD (the University of Texas at Dallas) and UD (University of Dallas) and got accepted to all three of them but I am planning to go to UTA. My first option is UTA and they asked for verification documents such as 2018 parent tax return transcript and household size, I submitted those and they were processed and UTA corrected one section of my FAFSA and I got a financial aid package that I accepted. However recently, I submitted verification forms also to UD and UTD cause they also request for them and they have corrected my FAFSA even more which will change the SAR report. How will this impact my UTA financial aid package? Did I commit a mistake by sending my FAFSA verification forms to schools that I am not planning to go to?
UD, UTD, and UTA all asked for the same forms which included the 2018 Parent Tax Return Transcript, Household size, and income verification for the student.
I submitted my FAFSA verification forms to UTA in December of 2019 and I received an aid package in February 2020, but I just sent my FAFSA verification forms to UD and UTD in March of 2020 and UTD has sent an email back of the corrections they will make to FAFSA,
If the first school believes that they made the correct changes, they should stick with the EFC that reflects their changes. On the other hand, if they see the changes the other two schools made & agree with them, they might make those additional updates.
The key will be whether the changes made by the other two schools will be sent to the first school in the form of an updated EFC transaction (called an ISIR). Some schools make the changes in a way that does not get transmitted to other schools, but many do it in a way that gets sent to all schools listed by the student on the FAFSA.
You could call the FAFSA helpline to ask about the latest changes & see if they were sent to the first school. If not, no worries. You should be set.
If the changes were sent to all schools, you may want to contact the first school to talk to a financial aid officer. Let them know the situation & see what they say. Personally, I have reset the FAFSA internally to the one I verified, even after other schools made changes. I don’t always agree with the way other schools interpret regulations.
Of course, it’s possible that the first school will agree with the other two schools & accept their changes. But they would eventually review the changes that came through, so it’s better to know now rather than later. It’s also possible it won’t make any difference to your aid at the first school even if they make the changes, particularly if you don’t have Pell.
Do you know what exactly the other two schools changed?
UD has not processed the forms that I have sent to them but UTD has and they replied to me that the household size will be corrected from 6 people to 4 people as when I submitted the forms to UTA, they were 6 people in the household but now as of March 2020, two people do not receive financial support and moved out so I get this why this correction is made cause I reported it. However, UTD has changed value of Parent 1 income and Parent 2 income and Parent Self Employment Payment. In total UTD has made a total of 4 corrections, the only correction that UTA made was regarding “Parents’ 2018 U.S. Income Tax Paid”. This is somewhat alarming to me as why these two corrections differ so much between UTD and UTA.
UD has not processed the forms that I have sent to them but UTD has and they replied to me that the household size will be corrected from 6 people to 4 people as when I submitted the forms to UTA, they were 6 people in the household but now as of March 2020, two people do not receive financial support and moved out so I get this why this correction is made cause I reported it. However, UTD has changed value of Parent 1 income and Parent 2 income and Parent Self Employment Payment. In total UTD has made a total of 4 corrections, the only correction that UTA made was regarding “Parents’ 2018 U.S. Income Tax Paid”. This is somewhat alarming to me as why these two corrections differ so much between UTD and UTA.
I have made a mistake, UTA has already changed the number for household size to 4 people, I forgot to mention that. I put 6 people at first when I was doing it by myself.
But when the three schools asked for my parent 2018 tax return information, I went to the IRS site where you can request a transcript online, https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript, and I sent them that, all three schools received the same 2018 Parent Tax Return Transcript.
You must have completed your FAFSA incorrectly, and theschools made updates based on your tax transcripts. It’s possible the first school missed something on the parent taxes that the other two schools updated. And it’s possible the other two schools made updates that the first school would disagree with. That’s why I asked if one of your parents is self-employed. That seems to be where the difference lies.