Financial Aid Help Please!

Paying for College
1

<p>My EFC has increased from 2260 to 5845, which causes me to not be eligible for the Federal Pell Grant anymore. I was eligible for it last year, but not for this coming year. Nor am I eligible for work study anymore. My parents both make about 25,000 each for 2011 and 2012, and my expected cost of education is 67,000. I'm trying to figure out why my EFC has increased drastically and I can't seem to figure it out. The gross income had only increased by $3600 and the taxes paid increased by $400. Is this enough to move my EFC score up to 5845? If anyone can help out here I'd appreciate it very much.</p>

2

<p>Do you earn any income? Anything above about $6,000? </p>

<p>Do you have any assets?</p>

3

<p>I earned about $1500 through work study at my school. Also, the only assets I hold are about $500 in the bank.</p>

4

<p>If you haven’t already, compare the SARs from 2012-13 and 2013-14. See what has changed. Doing so can also highlight any errors that might have been made.</p>

<p>What about your parents’ assets? The asset protection allowance went down about $5000 for 2013-14. Is your household size the same or did a sibling perhaps leave the nest? Were you the only one in college both years?</p>

<p>Higher gross income of course means a higher EFC but the marginal income should at max be assessed at 47%. Paying more tax reduces EFC.</p>

<p>Here are the fafsa formulas for 2012-13 and 2013-14. It’s putzy but not impossible to work through them:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you read pages 3 and 4 you will see that if your parents income crossed above $50,000 for 2012 it would affect the simplified means test eligibility.</p>

5

<p>You need to compare your FAFSA of 2012 & 2014 line by line, and see what changed.</p>