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That can be one of those high-overhead, feast or famine kind of businesses – and also one that sometimes creates some other benefits. For example – do you know what condition the house they bought when they got it? They could have gotten a good deal on a house that needed major repairs (not necessarily apparent from the outside).</p>
<p>Assets of businesses owned by the person filing the FAFSA that have less than 100 employees are not reported on the FAFSA. Income from the business paid to the family would have to be reported, but there are many creative ways to minimize this when you own a business, if that is your desire.</p>
<p>If you really feel like creeping on them, in many places now public records are available on the internet for free, which would let you see who actually owns the house (the people or the business) and whether there is a mortgage, and how much the mortgage is.</p>
<p>Do you have any flexibility in who it gets awarded to? Does it have to be the person with the lowest EFC? Especially if they’ve already received it once and the other person hasn’t.</p>
<p>The problem with this situation is that it is entirely possible that this family has reported information accurately to FAFSA and is legitimately a family with a low EFC. That doesn’t mean that they are needy. Several examples have been given that can explain the situation. There are many more.</p>
<p>My good friend’s kids were eligible for the PELL. She and the kids lived in a million dollar house, paid for in full. Their dad, the non custodial parent, is a surgeon. My friend basically lived mortgage free and had a very small income and most of her assets in a qualified pension plan with what little other monies still low enough that FAFSA generated a low EFC. I know your family is not in this situation, but think about a family like this who might apply for such a scholarship. How would your committee look at them? They clearly live an upper income life, their father is well to do but the FAFSA SAR legitimately shows a low EFC. They qualify for PELL. FAFSA only schools would have them eligible for financial aid. If your scholarship rules are such that the definition of need is how the numbers come out on the SAR, then your family is needy by that definition, and it really isn’t your business to question how they got such a low number. If they lied on the FAFSA for two years running, that is a crime they committed and a risk they took. I rather doubt that they did because there are simply too many ways they could have legitimately gotten the low number given they are self employed, how FAFSA calculator works, that the question is raised because of a high value asset, the house. </p>
<p>Do I think it is fair? No, I do not. I don’t think my friends kids should have gotten the PELL and the financial aid they got from FAFSA only schools, given their dad makes over a half million a year. He literally chortled at how much they got and how little he had to pay due to the way FAFSA worked. He refused to pay for any of the PROFILE schools and basically erratically played Santa Claus to his kids.
On the other hand, it isn’t the kids fault that they have such a jerk for a dad, and that FAFSA kicked in the way it does, allowed them more options than they would have had if their father’s income was included in need. They lost out on PROFILE schools, but hit the jackpot with FAFSA only schools. </p>
<p>Where your scholarship stands in all of this is something that the committee needs to decide. If there is nothing covering this situation and if the family legitimately qualifies for need by definition, then the student should get the award. You might want to discuss other indicators of need for future candidates, but I really don’t see how you are going to get a closer look at the finances unless you pick another need calculator and have the family fill that out. There is one used for private schools and extra curricular organizations that may better reflect full family resources. Like FAFSA and PROFILE, the app is sent to a central processing location and a need figure is generated. But both parents assets are included in this and the information is more like PROFILE than FAFSA. However, there are loopholes in every such app and if a family happens to be able to use them, yes, you can end up awarding a need scholarship to a student who isn’t the neediest but is by the definition your organization uses. It leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth when someone who looks well to do gets a needy award when other families clearly needier in life style do not because of the way the calculators work, but that’s just the way it works. That’s why the colleges that tend to be the most generous want to define need themselves rather than using the federal definition or other formula. They want to be able to address discrepancies like this one. But even they can’t catch all of the outliers.</p>