<p>I am in my second and hopefully final year of grad school, if I can get financial aid worked out. Halfway through my first year I lost my job, so my income on my 2009 FAFSA was cut in half on my 2010 FAFSA, but in reality I have no income right now. My EFC dropped as well, but that still reflects me working part of a year. My university says I'm awarded at COA right now, so they can't get me any more financial aid. I don't understand how my EFC wouldn't be lower with a job loss, which would qualify me for more aid. I did not check dislocated worker on the FAFSA because I misunderstood. Is it too late to change that or amend the EFC, and if not too late, would that make any difference in the aid I can get? </p>
<p>Its very confusing and the only answer I can get from my financial aid office is NO, but I would like an explanation. It was my understand that your aid is determined by COA - EFC, so if I lost my job, my EFC would be less, and I should be able to qualify for more. Am I just way off base with that? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>For schools that meet full need, your aid is determined buy cost of attendance minus EFC. So far as I know, there are NO graduate schools that guarantee to meet full need based on your FAFSA EFC. Most aid for grad school is not need based. It is merit based and is awarded based on your academic merit by the school in the form of assistantships, fellowships, scholarships, grants, sometimes work study, and loans. </p>
<p>Also, your FAFSA EFC was based on your income from 2009, not your income now.</p>
<p>There are LOTS of grad students who have an EFC of $0…they are coming out of undergrad school and had no incomes at all…or very low ones.</p>
<p>You need to talk to your financial aid office at your school AND more importantly, someone in your grad school department. You need to see if there is aid available for you from your department or school. In terms of federal aid (which really is all the FAFSA does anyway) for grad students, this would be a Stafford loan, and sometimes work study (some schools have this for grad students). There are no Pell grants or the like for grad studies.</p>
<p>How much more money do you need? Have you gotten the maximum Stafford loan? If so, you may be able to get a grad Plus loan in your name as well.</p>
<p>I have been award Stafford sub and unsub, I have not maxed out Stafford loans. The financial aid counselor said I could not get a GradPLUS loan because I have been awarded up to COA. If I could qualify for another $2000 in loans that would help, I don’t expect financial aid to replace my income but even with no job, I’m only getting $124 more than I did last fall when my FAFSA reflected full time income. </p>
<p>I’m just frustrated because it seems like if my income has been reduced to nothing, I would get more than $124 more than last year.</p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is based on your income from 2009. I know you were laid off, and I know you don’t have any income now. I’m not sure your school will consider that. As I said…MANY MANY grad students are not employed. And many more were not employed with any significant income during their senior year of college…thus netting VERY low EFCs. Grad schools do NOT guarantee to meet your full financial need. Your school may have given you all they are willing to give you.</p>
<p>What you are asking for is a special circumstances consideration based on your recent job loss. To get this, you must document your job loss, provide your lay off letter, etc to the financial aid folks. Some schools will consider these and others simply won’t. It is up to the school to decide if they will consider this as a special circumstance. In addition, many schools do not consider adjustments for a job loss until a specified period of time elapses…because you just might GET a job in the interim. </p>
<p>There is no way for us to know if your school will consider helping you or not…that is up to the school. SO get your info all together and type them a letter. Deliver it and talk to someone about your aid. It might do you some good…and then again it might not.</p>
<p>Schools cannot award you aid in excess of their cost of attendance. Just not permitted. What you are hoping for is an adjustment to your EFC…maybe they will do this…and maybe they won’t.</p>
<p>They cannot give you more than their COA, therefore to increase your aid, you must decrease your EFC. Check your FAFSA SAR and see what your EFC is. Thumper is correct, find out your finaid department’s requirements for an adjustment to EFC based on lost income. They should have a form you fill out, a few proof pages to submit and then adjust your EFC.</p>
<p>Thank you. I will try to call them Monday and hopefully speak with someone else; the counselor that emailed me last week said that lowering my EFC would not affect the amount of aid I qualify for. Her reason was because I was already awarded at COA, but like you said, I thought if my EFC was less than that would give me room to at least try to qualify for more aid.</p>
<p>It sounds like they don’t want to give me the option of reducing my EFC, or at least the woman that emailed me does not. I wasn’t given the option of submitting any paperwork to at least see if it would make a difference. I’m not sure if its worth pursuing at this point or not.</p>
<p>Your EFC isn’t the problem–regardless of EFC, you can get aid (mostly borrow) to COA fo0r grad school. HOWEVER, you can only get aid up to COA, regardless of EFC.</p>
<p>psych…some schools include your EFC as part of the total when figuring out the aid. In other words, they only award you aid that is COA minus EFC. Some schools allow you to stack aid from any source up to the cost of attendance. YMMV,</p>
<p>thumper… students can still take up to Stafford limit (or COA, if that’s lower than the Stafford limit), regardless… or is that not the case?</p>
<p>One would think this student should be able to take out the Stafford loan.</p>
<p>The student can get aid to COA. Unsub Stafford & Grad PLUS can replace EFC.</p>
<p>Sheri, is your aid all loans? Where I work, all grad aid is loans only. If a student has $8500 sub in her package, she isn’t going to get any more regardless of how low her EFC might go due to a loss of income. $8500 is the max annual sub for grad students. So if COA-EFC>8500, you will not get a better package if you request a review of your loss of income.</p>
<p>It is important to remember that the purpose of financial aid is to assist you with the cost of your education. The fact that you lost income and need to cover living expenses is not a factor in your financial aid. You will get a budget amount for living expenses in your COA. If your personal living expenses exceed this amount, you will not necessarily be able to receive aid to cover actual expenses.</p>
<p>There are some expenses that the federal regulations allow aid administrators to increase if the student requests an increase. The expenses must be documented and must be allowable under federal guidelines and institutional policies. You can look up “budget adjustments” on your school’s financial aid website or talk to your aid office for more information. If you receive a budget increase, you can borrow more Stafford (if your current budget is less than $20,500) or Grad PLUS to the adjusted COA.</p>
<p>And to answer your question about whether EFC going down equals more aid, the answer is no. Aid was offered to you to COA. Find your school’s COA for your program. Add up your offered aid. You will see that EFC is not a part of the equation … you received aid that totals COA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, kelsmom!</p>
<p>My aid is all loans, and I am not close to the $8500 limit for Stafford subsidized or the $12000 limit for unsub. I’ve been reading online about professional judgment adjustments, is that what you mean by a budget adjustment? What I’ve read does say that loss of income is a valid reason to at least consider an adjustment. No one from my university has mentioned that, but I would be happy to provide any documentation necessary for a budget adjustment. There is nothing on the school website about COA or budget adjustments. </p>
<p>When I couldn’t get any response from my school, I called the Department of Education, trying to get some clarification. The rep said that schools are encouraged to make adjustments for students who lose their income. She said I should have selected Displaced Worker on the FAFSA; I don’t know if that would have made a difference but at least then it would have been more accurate. </p>
<p>Thank you for all the responses. I’m going to try to figure out what kind of budget adjustment might be an option to at least ask about.</p>
<p>I am a financial aid officer in real life, so I can help if you will provide more info. What is your EFC? What are your awards? Also … go to your school’s website & do a search for “2010-11 cost of attendance.” Find the COA for grad students (if your school has part time and full time budgets, make sure you find the correct COA budget). What is that budget?</p>
<p>I will provide more advice once you post those numbers.</p>
<p>My EFC was 8670. Graduate cost of attendance for the year is $13,814, it doesn’t specify full or part time. That amount is not listed anywhere on the website, the financial aid counselor emailed that to me. I am getting $3880 in Stafford sub and $9770 in unsub for the year. I see that I am very close to that COA; are there any adjustments that can be made? </p>
<p>Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. Just getting some answers is helpful, even if they’re not the answers I hoped for :)</p>
<p>Your total loan amount is $13650. That is only $164 short of the cost of attendance. Surely you can earn $164.</p>
<p>It sounds like your housing/living costs are higher than the school’s estimates. Perhaps there are some ways you can cut costs in this area. Get another roommate, or something of that nature.</p>
<p>That COA seems low–is that for part-time grad students (are you part-time?.. maybe the FA officer provided you with that COA?), per chance? The full-time COA for in-state students at my grad school, for example, is around ~$20k/year. Also, it appears that my university does have a formal way to request COA adjustments in some circumstances (i.e., providing utility or medical bills or leases to “prove” high living or medical expenses), but it’s not guaranteed to be granted, so your school may have something similar (I also know that other schools just reject COA adjustment requests across the board or only allow them based on having children, so it varies by institution). It seems odd to me that the COA isn’t listed online–it’s usually standard operating procedure.</p>
<p>ETA: I agree with thumper–it’s probably more likely that you could lower your living expenses somehow than get a COA adjustment, as your school may not allow COA adjustments or may not approve your request.</p>
<p>You should be getting 13814-8670=5144 sub. Unsub should be 8670. This is based on an EFC of 8670. The only way this would be different is if your current sub award brings you to the grad sub agg limit.</p>
<p>A couple more questions: Were you selected for verification? Did you make updates to your FAFSA information after the initial filing? Did you originally file your FAFSA as an undergraduate?</p>
<p>Kelsmom, I thought the OP said she/he was a second year grad student.</p>
<p>My son’s cost of attendance for grad school was within this range for instate students. It is highly possible that this really IS the COA for this grad student.</p>
<p>An additional $164 won’t help, I lost my job over a year ago, so I’m not earning anything right now and haven’t been. I do know financial aid isn’t supposed to replace income, I’m actively searching for a job and am just trying to find out if there is additional aid for students that lose their job while attending school. I can’t get a roommate or change my living situation. I live 25 miles from my university and I’m not going to move my kids away from their schools just for a year of graduate school. </p>
<p>That is full-time COA according to the Financial Aid counselor, she gave me that figure when she said I was awarded at COA. I searched all over the website, but they do not list the COA. I thought it was odd, too.</p>
<p>I was not selected for verification, and I didn’t make changes to the FAFSA. I was an undergrad twenty years ago.</p>