<p>I live in MA. I left college 3 years back to start a company. I am now returning to complete my senior year and just received word that my FAFSA EFC is 3 dollars over the limit that has me eligible for a Pell Grant and special loans from MA. With only about a week to have my EFC lowered, does anyone have any idea how to modify my FAFSA to lower my EFC by 5 dollars?</p>
<p>What put me over the mark was that I was receiving unemployment while taking classes part time. I have very little saving <$5k. Should I speak to an accountant to see if I can amend my tax return by looking for extra deductions that I did not originally file with my tax return? I have not filed my official tax return yet with FASFA just my estimation which was based on my turbotax account.</p>
<p>If anyone has any suggestions that would be great, it feels awful to be so close to the cut of for receiving some very much needed college aid.</p>
<p>If you’ve submitted your FAFSA officially, unless you can demonstrate an error (which doesn’t include pulling out savings to drop that savings number), I don’t think you can change your EFC.</p>
<p>As I understand it, your FAFSA EFC is not based on tax deductions (otherwise too many people would qualify for a lot more aid). It’s based on AGI, which is the amount before you deduct a bunch of stuff. (that’s why you can’t deduct mortgage interest, etc).</p>
<p>Did you use your AGI income on FAFSA or did you use your “net income”? It sounds like you used your “net income” - which is a mistake.</p>
<p>You can still get Stafford loans. I don’t know if you’re over 24, but if so, you get to borrow the larger amounts. And, seriously, those amounts are the MOST anyone should borrow for undergrad anyway. Adding state loans would really be a problem.</p>
<p>How much do you need to borrow? </p>
<p>Next year, your EFC will be lower if your AGI is low enough. How much do you think you’ll earn in 2010? AGI income - not net.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Pell is a graduated amount. So, when you say that you’re $3 over, even if you were to reduce your EFC by a bit, you would get the lowest Pell amount.</p>
<p>What school will you be going to and how much does it cost?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help and the fast replies. I will check if I used AGI or net income. Also I will be going over the efc pdf tonight. </p>
<p>Right now I am not sure what I will have to pay. They will send me the bill and financial aid package in August. The school is Hampshire College, which is around 51k total with 10k being room and board. For the three previous years at the school I came out with 13k debt, which was not so bad but had to work a lot during the school year to achieve that. What I am concerned about is since I left, they sent a letter saying I should not expect the same level of aid. Additionally, I will have to take a loan for living expenses and school costs.</p>
<p>The killer for me is that now being 25 and financially independent for just under 4 years, Hampshire will not recognize me as independent as their criteria for independent status is not attending the college for more then 5 years. This means I will be paying for my parents expected contribution as well as my own. </p>
<p>Frankly, I really doubt Hampshire is going to work for you.</p>
<p>They will give you little to no aid, and you’ll be expected to pay the full amount. I would call them and politely insist that they give me some kind of idea of what kind of aid I can expect. (I get the feeling that you’ll get nothing or tooooo little.)</p>
<p>There’s no degree worth that kind of debt. </p>
<p>What is your major, and where else can you go to school.</p>
<p>Actually, if this student submitted his FAFSA using a “will file” status and then completes the 2009 taxes, he MUST go an make the changes that are reflective of his accurate 2009 tax return…and change the status to “taxes filed”. </p>
<p>The assets cannot be changed when you update, only the information from your 2009 tax return AND any errors you may have unintentionally made.</p>
<p>He posted that he did the “will file” in a later post. </p>
<p>He does need to see if he used “net income” instead of AGI. Since he was wondering about using more deductions to come up with a lower number, that suggests that he used net.</p>
<p>Hamilton will have to award you federal aid as an independent student if you are 25 - that is how it works. You will file the FAFSA as an independent student because the FAFSA folks will automatically use only YOUR info based on your birth date (even if you include your parents’ info). Hamilton will use your parents’ info to figure out what THEY will contribute. So you can count on the Pell if you do qualify based on your own income - and you can count on loans at independent student levels. Beyond that, Hamilton can do whatever they want … and that could be a problem for you. You need to find out what they will be offering you - get the requested info to them ASAP! If it won’t work, you need to figure out Plan B.</p>
