<p>So on my FAFSA, it showed that I had an EFC of 1226 and it was selected for verification. </p>
<p>So I submit my UCLA Verification form and my parent's tax returns. I got an email from the UCLA Financial Counselor. These are their exact words..</p>
<p>"According to your parents Federal tax return (Schedule E), your parents own properties. On page 3 of the Verification Form, you did not report any. We need the CURRENT market value (a good resource is Zillow</a> - Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Home Prices & Values ) and your current debt owed on the property. The current debt can be found on a current mortgage statement."</p>
<p>However, I replied to them, saying that according to my parents, the properties have been sold in 2010 and I provided Schedule E worksheets for further verification. </p>
<p>And then I check my Financial Aid Summary, and it shows that my parents have to contribute at least 25k for my education. </p>
<p>Is there anything that can explain the jump of the EFC besides making a mistake on the FAFSA?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about your situation, but is it possible that they adjusted your EFC and haven’t processed your reply / Schedule E worksheets?</p>
<p>Either way, I would definitely give the Financial Aid Office a call on Monday (310-206-0400).</p>
<p>I would try to schedule a meeting with the counselor and your parents. A similar thing happened to me last year, and basically, everything gets screwed up because they are looking at past financials, regardless of changes… here’s a cliffs of my story.</p>
<p>Enter UCLA in F09 with EFC~30k (Dad made 100k pretax, mom 40k pretax)
Dad dies in Nov 09
File FAFSA for yr 10-11 with EFC~5k
Get red flagged for verification
Had to submit ****loads of paperwork, including death certificates, etc…
UCLA counselor changed my EFC to 16k
Appealed and got a 8.k5 grant from UCLA.</p>
<p>Basically, I believe the change in UCLA is by the counselor’s to cover the ass of the federal government. Obviously, yours is a special circumstance where the properties are no longer owned, but there are lots of variables that come into play with those properties (ie, what were they used for? Retirement? Was there a gain/loss on sale? Where is the money now? Savings? (<– this is the worst place), IRA?, etc…)</p>