One more question? :) FAFSA Verification, but not really?

<p>Last question for today, I promise. </p>

<p>When I filed my FAFSA it told me that I had to do the verification. (* next to my EFC) </p>

<p>When I went to the school on Tuesday I asked financial aid and then checked later online at my school account but it said that it was awarded. It says there are no holds or any other papers or anything needed.</p>

<p>What was the point of wanting to do a verification and then not ask for verification of anything? (I do get SSI, so that could have been as easy as checking with social security to make sure I actually get it.) but it seemed kind of odd. I have gone through verification before and I had to take in all kinds of papers. I figured it would be the same this time, but it wasn't. </p>

<p>Does the government just check some things on their own or does the school sometimes ignore the verification needed and just say they got it or something?</p>

<p>TIA!</p>

<p>My understanding is that schools have to verify at least 30% of the FAFSAs they receive. They can choose to verify those flagged by FAFSA, or they can use their own criteria. Some choose to just verify 30%, some verify everyone. If the schools does not request verification documents from you then you do not have to provide anything. </p>

<p>My daughter has been verified every year so far. He EFC on the SAR has an * by it so we are expecting them to request documents. So far they have not and we saw on her student information account that they are starting to list her aid, though so far it is just her recurring merit awards listed. Previously they have never listed anything until she has been through the verification process so we are thinking maybe they will not require it this year. The aid awarding seems painfully slow this year at her school - I am sure we knew everything by this time last year.</p>

<p>How verifications are done varies by school. Where I work, we verify any student who has an *. Another school in our area is in a special program that allows them to choose the groups of students they will verify - so they don't pay attention to the *'s & a student without an * may be selected for verification. Other schools stick with the % rule & won't verify every student with an * because they know from experience that they will meet their verification requirements without requiring every *'d student to be verified.</p>