For a lack of a better words I feel like I’m in deep **** even though it was never intentional. Last year, I submitted my FAFSA and was given the BOG fee waiver. Everything was great. Then, when submitting my FAFSA this year, I noticed I made a typo on my application LAST YEAR for 17-18. For my assets I reported $500 instead of $5000! I missed a zero! So dumb. I’m assuming thats why I got the BOG waiver? Even though my parents income is over the BOG guidelines. And this year when I was filing FAFSA for 18-19, my parents were in a desperate situation to pay rent and I told them I’d lend them $1,000 so when I filed FAFSA I reported that I had $4,000 instead of the $5,000 that was in my bank account (since I was about to give my parents $1,000 and it’d no longer be my money). But a few days later, my parents figured it out and no longer needed my money so I’m now back to $5,000. I’m conflicted on what to do. Do I go back and change the $4,000 to $5,000 since the situation changed? The question was “on the day you filled it out how much money do you have?”, and on that exact day I DID have $4,000 of my own money since the $1,000 was about to be my parents’. Do I tell my school about my typo from last year and risk having my BOG fee waiver revoked and pay everything back? Despite my $5,000 I am so broke. I’m saving that money for dental hygiene school, which is why I never even use it. Anyways, one of these is a simple typo and the other was because I was planning to give my parents money and then ending up not having to. I’m so scared I’ll be asked to verify my assets with bank statements and then they’ll see I had $5,000 in my account when I filed even though I was about to lend my parents $1,000 which just fell through and I ended up not having to, and think I intentionally lied which I would NEVER do. I’m the biggest wimp in the world, I don’t even jaywalk 
It was just a typo and my parents no longer needed my money and help. I’m having anxiety attacks over this every day. Please help! Any advice is appreciated.
“It was just a typo” does NOT excuse the error.
For the 2018-2019 FAFSA, wait until it processes, and then go and change the asset amount. You made a MISTAKE so you should be able to correct this field to reflect what your assets REALLY were the date of your filing.
It sounds like on the “exact day” you completed FAFSA you did have $5,000 of your own money, because even though you were planning on giving $1,000 to your parents, you hadn’t yet done that. And you never did. It didn’t matter if the $1,000 was “about” to be given to your parents. What matters is the number as of the moment that FAFSA is completed. Not what you anticipate it will be the next day, next week or next month. If you wanted your FAFSA answer to accurately reflect a $1,000 decrease in your bank account because of the money that you were planning on giving to your parents, you should have waited until after the $1,000 was given to them before completing FAFSA.
Ugh that was so dumb of me. I guess because I was just gave them my card I considered that even though it was in my account it was already their money. So should I go back and change it? If I do, I will sure be chosen by my school for verification. What if they don’t believe me? About my mistake last year and this year?
And what should I do about last years mistake? I genuinely messed up both years. Idk what i’m supposed to do. The financial aid people at my school aren’t the kindest people to deal with, I’m scared they won’t believe that it was a genuine error. Like I said I’m the biggest wimp ever Id never do this intentionally
I don’t think you can just change the asset amount on the FAFSA. Since it is one school, call and talk to the finance people and ask what to do. $1000 in savings should change your EFC by about $200 but it depends on a lot of other numbers too.
You can change assets, I checked. My current EFC is 008932. And I submitted it to two schools actually, the one I’m currently at and the one I hope to be transferring to if I get in.
Well then try it. Your EFC should go up to $9132, which will probably change very little of your award (not Pell eligible).
Yeah I’m honestly not expecting aid which sucks, but I need to fix these mistakes otherwise I’m going to keep having anxiety attacks. I’m going to change this years FAFSA to $5,000. Any ideas on what I should do about last years mistake? I already received aid from last year. What idiot messes up two years in a row? Ugh
You absolutely CAN change the asset amount IF you made a mistake…and you did. Wait until your FAFSA processes, and then change your asset amount to what you REALLY had the day you filed that FIRST FAFSA.
What aid did you get last year?
I contacted my schools financial aid office earlier and the woman I spoke to said not to worry about changing it from 4,000 to 5,000, that the tax information being correct is what matters (which it is correct). Last year I got the BOG fee waiver and that is all.
You might want to put the $5,000 into a 529 account if you are saving it for dental hygiene school. Then for FAFSA it would be counted as a parent asset.