Federal Tax Returns - Amherst

Paying for College
1

<p>Hello all. I am actually in a pretty bad/frustrating predicament. After reviewing my financial award from Amherst College, I noticed that I did not receive any federal aid. In fact, the Pell Grant they gave me was only an estimate. I checked "important messages" and saw that I had to verify my FAFSA. The message reads: </p>

<p>"Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was selected by the Department of Education for the federal process of verification. Before any federal financial aid can be confirmed, additional documentation is needed ... All requested documentation must be submitted. Until these materials are received, we cannot disburse federal grant or loan aid to you". </p>

<p>So this helped to explain why I didn't get any federal aid. But that's not the frustrating part. The predicament I'm in is that I need to send Amherst my parent's federal tax transcript. According to my father, he sent the files to the irs on March 15. Today, I am unable to make an order for the transcript and have no idea how long it will be until I can. (he sent it by paper - not electronically - btw). Therefore, my aid is currently incomplete. However, this is not so for my other colleges such as Williams which have completed my financial aid because verification was not required. Now, I believe that Amherst will give me the most financial aid if the federal aid is added. However, this is only an assumption based off of the federal aid i see in my other colleges which is pretty much the same. </p>

<p>Now, I have to decide (as we all know) on a school by May 1. I believe that it is really important that i see the revised version of the aid before I decide. What should I do? Should I call the financial aid office and tell them about my situation and hopefully find another way to verify my fafsa rather than through the federal transcript. Can using the IRS Data retrieval tool replace the transcript? Will the school be able to tell me how much more aid i will get before the May 1st deadline? I'm really concerned at this moment and hope that this will not prevent me from possibly attending Amherst.</p>

2

<p>Call the FA office and tell them about the delay for the tax transcript, ask about the data retrieval as an alternative to it. If you are eligible for a Pell or other federal aid, just confirm that with them and get confirmation about what your final aid award will look like with the expected federal aid included. If it all sounds good, but is just waiting on that last clerical detail, you don’t have to worry. Amherst is really good about working with you. And… hey, congratulations!</p>

3

<p>I second that Amherst is great about working with families. Calm down and call them in a very polite manner and they are likely to help you out.</p>