Hello. I am currently a Sophmore in College. I have a 3.9 GPA and finance my studies by myself. Every year, I have to talk to my parents and basically BEG for their W2s in order to let me file for the FAFSA. This year, I was randomly selected for an audit. The same year that I have to prepare for Studying Abroad. My parents have finally submitted their taxes. I am not sure when I will receive all their information from them in order to complete my “audit”.
Consequentially, because of this audit, or verification, all of my 40 scholarship applications have been pulled from the University, as the application was considered incomplete because of a lack of FAFSA on file.
Do I have ANY options as to either filing as an independent, or finding any kinds of funds in order to go and study abroad next semester? I need to have everything payed by May 15th, and I’m running out of options. If I do not study abroad, I cannot graduate. I do not have much savings, but I have some from the two jobs that I work.
I already take out a ridiculous amount of loans from the federal government and cannot stomach taking out loans from a third party.
Do you all have any suggestions as to what possibilities I have? I’m more frustrated than anything…why does going to school have to be so expensive and painful?
Hi!
Here’s a [neat flowchart](https://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/dependency-status.png) to help you determine if you are independent. Basically, you have to be 24 years old, a veteran or serving on active duty, a graduate student, have a child or other dependent that you provide more than half of the support for, or some kind of orphan or ward of the court to be independent. If that doesn’t sound like you, I would forget about independent status.
I’m not sure I fully understand what the issue is though. Being selected for verification doesn’t mean that you won’t get financial aid. It just means that you have to follow the school’s filing requirement – such as providing tax transcripts from the IRS or W-2 information as required. Since your parents have already done this, all you have to do is provide the information when you have it available. Is there some reason why you can’t just do that?
You should also look into using IRS Data Retrieval to reduce the chances of having to go through verification.
It’s the timeline of everything, really. And I will not be offered enough loans in order to pay the difference, once my financial aid goes through. I have to figure out a way to find $23k by May 15th…
I was relying on scholarships but that’s out of the picture, now.
I think I understand now. Your problem is less to do with your parents and their tax return and more to do with the $23,000 gap in your budget that you don’t have a realistic plan of closing. Were these all scholarships from your university?
If you can’t get them to consider you, it may not be possible to afford a study-abroad trip at this point. (I’m assuming that you have already sought assistance from your study-abroad coordinator or academic department). Can you talk to your program advisor? There might be a way to take other courses now and do the study abroad in a subsequent semester where you can apply for the scholarships in time and hopefully be able to pay for it then.
You just need to complete the verification. Both my kids were selected for verification this year, and once my tax transcript is available, I’ll send it in. There are only 3-4 things the verification requires. Because I have two in two different schools, I have to certify that. I don’t remember what else besides the tax transcript. If your parents just filed, when the transcript will be read depends on if they had to pay when they submitted their returns, and if so, how they paid. Talk to your parents about the verification, and then to your FA office.
Any federal aid will be held until that verification is finished.
Try using a descriptive title next time. ‘help’ is what all the threads want.
With short time there is nothing to suggest. You should have started nagging earlier I guess and let them know you would be losing free money. If you are Pell eligible you can apply for a Gilman Grant for study abroad but not for this summer.
