<p>Just got an email from FAFSA saying that one of the colleges changed our FAFSA, which reduced our EFC from 7589 to 2256. For 2007, our family will have 2 D's in college and one parent going fulltime, but on the FAFSA, you must exclude the parents. The college sent in a "corrected" FAFSA and changed my number in college from 2 to 3, which wiped out that parent's income and now shows that D is eligible for Pell Grant and ACG.</p>
<p>I called FAFSA because I hoped that maybe I had completed the form wrong and that the new EFC would be correct, but they said that the parent could not be counted so the Financial Aid sent in a wrong correction.</p>
<p>Why would the Financial Aid office do that? Aren't they supposed to be the experts?</p>
<p>I got the same sort of thing! is it possible to figure out what school did that?</p>
<p>It sure is. Call FAFSA and they will tell you. I've been going rounds with a school because they are making an incorrect change. It infuriates me that one school can go in and change the FAFSA. That "changed" FAFSA is then sent to all the schools that were on the same list as the school that changed it. None of the other 9 schools changed it, but my alma mater did. They even admitted what they do doesn't calculate correctly, but this is "how they do it".</p>
<p>No, do not assume those in f/a offices are the "experts". After dealing with several f/a offices and understanding how profile and fafsa are calculated, unfortunately I have found otherwise with a few schools.</p>
<p>Thanks. Was this before or after your child was accepted/rejected?</p>
<p>This is what is confusing:
"Your Correction to your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been processed and the data will be made available to the school(s) listed on your corrected FAFSA. The financial aid office at your school will contact you if additional information is required.: (I updated the FAFSA myself after taxes were done.) Bu then the email goes on to say:</p>
<p>The Financial Aid Administrator (FAA) at your school has made corrections to your application. If you think you need to make additional corrections, please contact your FAA before doing so. (So, are they talking about MY corrections or about corrections made by some school?
FAFSA is closed on SUnday. It's driving me crazy that I cannot find out what school they are referring to. I agree that changes should not be made without consulting the parent first!</p>
<p>While you or I cannot list a parent in the number in college on FAFSA, it is one of the things that can be adjusted by a financial aid officer under professional judgement. Our school adjusted FAFSA for us for different reasons (medical costs plus loss of income). finaid.org has a good description</p>
<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/parentnic.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/parentnic.phtml</a></p>
<p>I am surprised a school would not let you know they were doing it in advance. In our case we knew it was under review (after all we provided almost a 1 inch thick pile of documents supporting everything :) ). The school did email us to let us know when they were submitting the adjustments.</p>
<p>Oh, okay. So it sounds like they do that to try and get us a better deal? I would hope they wouldn't go ahead and make changes to the FAFSA that get submitted to ALL schools that would cause us to have to pay more or end up ineligible for scholarships, etc.
I wrote a letter to schools to let them know my elderly parents are moving in with me in June, and I will be supporting them. Perhaps this caused them to make a change...</p>
<p>You can go onto FAFSA and look at your SAR to see what changes have been made. Sunshadow - If the adjustment relates to your parents moving in with you I would guess in your case it would be to the number of persons in the household - that would increase your income protection.</p>
<p><a href="http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/0708EFCFormulaGuide.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/0708EFCFormulaGuide.pdf</a></p>
<p>page 18 shows income protection tables</p>
<p>THat was really helpful, thanks so much swimcatsmom. Unfortunately, I cannot see any changes that were made, including to size of household. Everything looks the same. I guess I will have to sweat it out until the office opens on Monday.</p>
<p>Did you make sure to look at the most recent transaction? Our original FAFSA was transaction 01. When school submitted changes it was transaction 02. I think both SARs are veiwable - I did not try and view our 01 as I had already printed it out. Good luck.</p>
<p>Actually, any time a student is pulled for verification and the verification documents reviewed, the school has the ability and right to make any necessary changes to the FAFSA. Sometimes, the change which is made is strictly to a student's grade level...so that it matches the grade level at the respective school. (For example, I have routinely had to make changes to FAFSA applications because the student said they were "First year, never attended" yet they were admitted with credit hours. Other times, I have had to change the grade level because they said "Third year/Junior" and had never attended college or earned any credits.)</p>
<p>Also, changes can be made due to incorrect corrections by the student, where the studnet "was sure they had the correct information." In fact, just recently I had a student argue this point with me. He was sure his information was correct, including his 5 figure AGI. When I reviewed all of the verification documents, I made corrections to his AGI...putting the correct 4 figure income on the line. He yelled and screamed and bickered saying how wrong I was...but when I forcefully told him to examine his tax return thoroughly, he realized the error he had made (typo). He went from having a 5 figure EFC to a ZERO EFC.</p>
<p>If you want to view the changes which were made to your FAFSA, and compare the data....log into FAFSA and view your most recent transaction. The changes will be indicated by a "#". Be sure to look closely at all questions. If you still doubt or question the reason for the adjustment to your FAFSA application, contact your FA Office and they will be able to explain where and why the changes occured.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the information. We were selected by this school for verification, so in addition to the copies of tax returns, I also filled out their "special circumstances" form to let them know that we would only have one income this year due to husband being full-time student in all of 2007; therefore, our AGI would be considerably less. They also only included their school on the correction - not the other 5 schools that we had previously sent out to. </p>
<p>So I know why they made the change, but my question to other FA workers or others dealing with this is, but when I called and talked to the FAFSA he indicated that if the school were ever audited and would have to show why the number was changed, my D would have to re-pay any Federal funds because technically due to the Federal government - she was not eligible for them (i.e. Pell Grant and ACG Grant).</p>
<p>I have not gotten the final finacial aid package from the school, so I don't know what impact this will have on her package. We had previously applied and been accepted for Early Decision in Dec and had to declare by Jan 15, but the original finacial aid package was $12,000 off that we had to turn it down and ask to be re-considered for regular decision - and hopefully a better financial aid package or have time to find outside scholarships. The office told me that her new package would probably be the same or less for regular decision, which is why I sent in the "special circumstances" form.</p>
<p>Wow Swimcatmom - thank you for the link to the website concerning including parents. That is very encouraging news! I wonder why the guy at FAFSA didn't tell me this?</p>
<p>Atrain,</p>
<p>Yes, if the school incorrectly changed information on the FAFSA, your child would be responsible to repay any funds disbursed which were not rightful hers. However, the school itself could be fined large sums of money also. In fact, if the school official who made the changes did so fraudulently, they could personally be fined $20,000, be sent to prison, or both.</p>
<p>Now, if the FAA made changes based on the verification documentation which was submitted and those correct changes meant your D was eligible for additional aid, then she is entitled to it. FAA's take FAFSA corrections VERY seriously because it is our behinds on the line...more so than the parent or student's in these types of cases. More than once the DOE has investigated FAA's and placed them under arrest for fraudulently awarding financial aid.</p>