<p>Okay, so my husband and I went to see the FA yesterday morning and gave all of the necessary papers for the verification process. The FA mentioned that 30% of the FAFSA applications are verified. She also told us "hopefully you won't have to go through verification for the next school year." So, how does it really work? Is that by random selection? Or are there certain criteria that selects the ones that need to be verified?</p>
<p>We were told that it can take from 4-6 weeks for the verification process and that does take a long time. I'm just curious...what are the things that need to be done during the verification process? If they make corrections on our FAFSA, will we be able to see it when we logon the FAFSA website to view our SAR? We'll be registering for classes starting next week, and the wait is killing us.</p>
<p>I hope Kelsmom chimes in on this. I’d like to hear her feedback.</p>
<p>I doubt anybody with an EFC over the COA of the school gets picked.</p>
<p>I think you have a better chance of being verified if you are an EFC 0.</p>
<p>The government will tell you that it’s all random, but that is most probably baloney!</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what I thought too…because my sister-in-law and my husband’s cousin also applied for FAFSA sometime this year, and they both were not verified because their husbands are employed and showed W-2’s. My husband and I are self-employed and we obviously do not make a fixed income every year. We had 0 EFC, so I have a feeling we’re going to be verified every year we apply for FAFSA.</p>
<p>We have low EFCs and have been verified 5 FAFSAs out of 6 (3 people). I think one of our schools, a CC, verifies every FAFSA (some schools do). We were susprised when my daughter’s 3rd FAFSA was not verified with an EFC of 0 and a * by her EFC (which means automatically selected for verification). My understanding is that schools are required to verify 30% of all FAFSAs submitted to them but they do not have to verify those with a *. They can pick who and how many (as long as it is at least 30%). </p>
<p>
There is a frequent poster on CC who says they have never qualified for any need based aid but their FAFSAs have been verified every year.</p>
<p>Last year my daughter listed 2 colleges on her FAFSA (was waiting to hear about admission to one of them still), and she also got the * on her SAR. One of the colleges asked for the tax returns, etc. to verify, but the other (which is the one she ultimately attended) never did ask… even though her FAFSA was *'d.</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered about this. In three years we were verified once and each year’s FAFSA is pretty similar with current economic trends up or down slightly…I thought it was random (the * part) and/or the schools are required to verify 30% *ed or otherwise.</p>
<p>The short answer is that being selected for verification is more or less random. It’s not that simple, though. Certain items on the FAFSA might not quite make sense, which may prompt selection (say, very high “taxes paid” - sometimes even equal to AGI!). There are other things that probably are more likely to prompt selection, I would guess. You will sometimes see a note on your SAR about something - if you were selected for verification, maybe that contributed. Or maybe it’s all random & anything I “think” might contribute is just a coincidence. I do see high incomes selected for verification.</p>
<p>Schools like mine verify every FAFSA that is selected. Other schools stick to the 30% (so they don’t necessarily verify every selected FAFSA). Yet others verify every FAFSA, selected or not. And then there are the handful of schools that participate in a special verification program where they select their own students for verification. In other words, it varies by school.</p>
<p>Verification is pretty straightforward. The info you put on your FAFSA is compared to your tax returns & your verification worksheet. The sticky part is when the info can be interpreted to present conflicting information. For example, let’s say you said you received $2000 for child support when you filled out your FAFSA. When you completed your verification worksheet, you said you didn’t receive any child support. Now the aid officer has to collect documentation. Or let’s say mom & dad, who indicated on the FAFSA that they are married, submit tax returns - and each filed as head of household. This is a biggie - we can’t allow it if the filing status is incorrect. So we have to have proof that they could file that way - or they need to amend their returns & submit the amended returns. Household size might be updated by the aid officer during verification if the school policy is not to allow older siblings in the household size. </p>
<p>If changes are made, sometimes the FAFSA corrections must be sent to the processor & the aid officer has to wait until they come back to make sure the corrections were properly processed. At that point, aid can be paid. If no changes are made, or if it’s not necessary to wait for whatever changes were made to come back, aid can be paid out sooner. </p>
<p>Yes, it sometimes takes a long time. I wish it didn’t. Hopefully, Lexie, it won’t take quite so long for you, since your aid office probably has fewer applications to verify now than they did a couple months ago.</p>
<p>And yes, you will be able to see the changes if the school sends them out to the processor.</p>
<p>Thank you for a very detailed explanation, Kelsmom. 
So, who does all the corrections? I don’t know if you remember that I made a previous post about the corrections that we needed to make on our FAFSA (dislocated worker and the 1040A). When we met with the FA last Monday, I printed out our SAR and highlighted the ones that we need to correct (because those questions were not in the verification worksheet). So, does the FA makes those corrections? Or will it be someone from the Dept. of Ed?</p>
<p>Dept of Ed does not make changes to your FAFSA that I am aware of. That is the responsibility of the student or an FA officer. Did you ask the school whether you should make the changes to things you were already aware were wrong when you were in the meeting? Or did they say they would be doing it?</p>
<p>When we have been verified the data from our end was what we thought was correct. We have twice had changes made by the FA officer. The 1st time for a special circumstances adjustment that we had asked for (high medical bills). The 2nd time the FA officer corrected something they considered we had entered wrong. I was not entirely sure their correction was correct, but it did not make a difference to our EFC so I never pursued it. </p>
<p>We found things proceeded fairly quickly once the verification was complete. Hopefully you will hear something soon. Let us know how it all turns out. Good luck.</p>
<p>They told us that they’ll do the corrections themselves. That was one of the first questions I asked when we met with the FA. It’s only been two days since we met with her but it seems months to me already…hehe! Thank you, swimcatsmom. 
As far as I’m concerned, aside from the corrections that we personally pointed out on the SAR, I have double checked all the information. As far as I’m concerned, they’re as accurate as they can be. Hopefully, we’ll hear from them before Christmas.</p>