Help! need info regarding EFC and pell

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi everyone. My son is majoring in science and I am trying to help him determine his pell eligibility which is so very important in his case as he will also receive the SMART grant if he is pell eligible for any amount.</p>

<p>My problem is that he is having to use his father's info due to the rules and neither of them understand much about the process. I have run over 5 EFC calculators that shows his EFC under $4000 which would qualify him, but at this point he keeps receiving back a figure over $6500 on the EFC. I don't have access to the info since his father entered it, but I feel sure something is wrong. </p>

<p>For those of you that are experienced with EFC calculations out there, I am hoping you can help. Basically the family income is $55000 with 5 members in the family, assets of only $4500 and 1 in college. No additional income or benefits at all and student income of only about $1500. He is full time and living off campus. Shouldn't these figures qualify him?</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure. My son, for the 2008-9 school year, did not qualify for any Pell money based on our 2007 income and assets. We had an income of about 57K, no assets, 4 people in the family, 1 in college (just him.)</p>

<p>For 2009-10 he did qualify for a $1500 Pell grant, with our 2008 income at around 62K, but now with 2 in college.</p>

<p>(My son earned between somewhere around $1800, if I recall, both last summer and the summer before that.)</p>

<p>In your case, I think the 5 in the family would help, but aside from that, in my experience he might be on a threshold for Pell and tip either way depending on the actual details.</p>

3

<p>

Since you’re only entering estimates, you should check your estimates against what his dad entered.</p>

4

<p>Have him print his SAR.</p>

5

<p>He can access his SAR by going to FAFSA.ed.gov & checking the option under #3 “View & Print Your Student Aid Report.” He only needs his PIN to access this. You can go through it line by line & see if it looks like they reported things properly. People often make mistakes that cause their EFC to be higher than it should be … if it wasn’t verified, the mistakes will never be caught. </p>

<p>If you can’t get the SAR, do a hand calculation using your best estimates & the Dependent Student Regular EFC Formula (AVG-53 in lower right hand corner of page): <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh3.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh3.pdf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thanks so much for the info. I did the calculations on the manual worksheet and it shows he qualifies. We will be delving into this more tomorrow.
Thanks!</p>