Hello!
My son just received an email from a college he was accepted to but doesn’t want to go anymore. They are saying that his “Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been selected for review in a process called verification. This process is governed by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the college”.
They are not asking for any specific documents, even though it says in the subject that there is missing information.
My son applied to 10 schools, this is the only one asking for verification. If I remove that school from FAFSA, what is going to happen to the verification request? Should I remove it from the list of schools on FAFSA and forget about the verification? It’s a 3 day weekend, I can’t call the school until Tuesday and it’s killing me. Thank you in advance for your replies.
@kelsmom can clarify…but you only send info the college(s) request. So if you haven’t been asked for anything…there is nothing to send.
Removing this school from your FAFSA? Not sure that matters at all. The schools you submitted to have already received this from, including the one who informed you about verification. I’d just leave it alone.
Adding…please check your spam folders in case there are verification notices from any of the other colleges. And keep an eye out. If there is a discrepancy or error, the financial aid offices will want this info verified.
Removing the school from the FAFSA doesn’t accomplish anything. The fact that one school says the student’s FAFSA was selected for verification by the processor means that verification will be required by every school to which the FAFSA has been or will be sent. This just happens to be the first school that contacted the student about it. I assume that there is a financial aid portal for the school, and required documentation is requested via that portal. If the student won’t be attending that school, the request can be ignored.
However, as I mentioned, all schools will be requesting information to comply with the verification requirements. Your child needs to stay on top of this. Most schools will have a financial aid portal for accepted students, and requests for documentation will be posted to this portal. If the student was assigned an email address at the time of acceptance, communications will be sent to that email address. Schools that don’t have rolling admissions will sometimes get everything in order to award aid just in case the student is accepted - in this case, a student might be asked for verification information prior to acceptance. Or the request might come after acceptance.
Thank you very much for quick reply. If I understand correctly, every school he applied to and/or had been accepted to will be sending him this request for verification now? Or post it on their portals? So if he knows he doesn’t want to go to that particular school, he doesn’t have to answer it ? And if he’s interested in going to the school then he has to find out what information is needed and send it to that school? That would save him a lot of time and effort. He applied to 10 schools, had been accepted to 9 with the last one releasing decisions this coming Friday. He has top 3 he is seriously considering. Can he just ignore the rest if they send him requests for verification? Thank you!
Thank you for answering. The email says he need to fill out a form. The form asks his personal info: name, address, etc. It also says that my son and I have to login into FAFSA and update both of ours tax info using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. There is nothing to update since there hasn’t been any changes in the tax return filed in 2020.What does that have to do with college missing some information? Totally confused.
Yes, I did enter everything manually. I’ve never had an experience of going to college myself and everything I read suggested I do that. Plus, sending information through IRS Data Retrieval means I cannot see or check it. Made me uncomfortable. Was that a mistake?
The data retrieval tool imports the information from your tax return. This way the colleges know that what is on the FAFSA matches what was reported on your return. Every college will want to verify that what you manually entered is correct.
If you didn’t do an IRA or TSA rollover in 2020, you probably will need to do the DRT or otherwise provide documentation that the info is correct.
For Profile schools, many use IDOC, and you will need to upload your return and send to the colleges.
But that doesn’t solve the FAFSA accuracy verification…because the FAFSA is used to determine eligibility for the Pell Grant.
@kelsmom your thoughts? I’m thinking updating with the DRT might be easier than verifying any other way.
You will be required to use the DRT as part of verification, unless there is some reason you cannot (such as married filing separately, amended return, identity theft). Do it now, since you will eventually need to do so (for both parent & student, if student filed a return).
You absolutely can ignore any requests from schools your son will not be attending. Verification is completed at the school level, so you don’t have to comply with requests from a school he definitely won’t be attending. He will continue to get requests, unless he informs the school that he will not be attending.
Verification is a federally mandated process, and schools are required to collect certain documentation to compare with the information on the FAFSA. Each school will have its own forms, and all will tell you to use the DRT. If you can’t use the DRT, let us know - I can explain how to prepare for what you will be required to provide in lieu of using the DRT.
I did fill out CSS profile along with FAFSA and sent all the documents they wanted for profile through IDOC for 1 of the top 3 schools my son is considering. The other 2 are state schools and I only did FAFSA for them. I’m sorry I’m taking so much of your time. I think I understand now that I have to wait for the 3 schools my son wants to send me instructions on what they want me to do and then do IRS Data Retrieval in his FAFSA. Correct?
You need to see what the schools ask you for. That is what you need to send them.
@kelsmom can correct me if I’m wrong….but if your tax documents are not the same as what your returns submitted to IDOC say, I believe the colleges are required to make that correction on the FAFSA.
But for the schools requiring only the FAFSA, you could wait…or you could do the DRT sooner than later.
I suggest doing the DRT now. It will make things easier - even the CSS Profile schools will require you to use the DRT (because it’s now a federal requirement). If you had a rollover that year, be sure to watch for the question that asks about the rollover.
A rollover (for the purposes of what I refer to) is a transfer of money from one retirement account directly to another. It gets listed on the tax return, and many people neglect to check off a FAFSA box that indicates there was a non taxable rollover (so it negatively affects EFC when it should not).
I think my documents matched because there is a list on the portal and nothing is missing or flagged. My son received a financial aid letter from that school already. I 'm just worried that this review will somehow negatively influence the decisions on acceptance and awards. I know I read that 1 out of 3 people get reviewed but I’m still nervous. Thank you!
You think what you put on the FAFSA matches what was on your tax return, but you have no idea how many people make a small typo error. Yours might be perfect…but by doing the DRT now, the schools will have that info, and know it’s the same as on your 2020 taxes.
This should not have any impact on admissions…and really, your financial aid award must be based on accurate info. If your manual entries were accurate and in the right fields, etc…that shouldn’t be a problem with the DRT use either.
So doing DRT and waiting for the 3 schools to send me their requirements. That’s clarity! Thank you!