I just submitted my FAFSA (Today, less than 5 hours ago) and they said I would around an estimated $9,000 for a school that is about 24000 a year. However, when I did my FAFSA I accidentally put “Fall” instead of “Fall/Spring” semester when I submitted it. My question is: Since my FAFSA looks like im only going for one semester, are those estimates only for 1 semester or for the whole year (2 Semesters)?
Example: If my FAFSA is processed and they award me $9,000, would that be for just the one semester the FAFSA thinks I am attending, or would I only get half that and the other half just never gets used? It does not make sense to me that they would award me for a year of college when on my FAFSA it only says i’m going for a single semester.
PS: Once its processed we plan on correcting the error, but I have only about a month before my fall semester starts so if need be ill be attending that semester with my FAFSA as is and re-submitting it at the end of the semester.
Yes, you need to correct the FAFSA, but your eligibility for financial aid is not the estimate you saw when you hit submit, Your actual financial aid package will come from your school, after review.
My question is that will the school apply whatever they send me to one symester or not? The school has me registered for the fall semester. So examples sake, lets assume that I only plan to go one semester and thats what I put on my FAFSA, they sned me the email with my estimates and all, would my award be that full amount because I only put the fall semester on my FAFSA application, or will they cut that amount in half regardless of how many symesters im registered for?
I have to ask. Why are you doing a FAFSA for this fall 2017 this late?
The FAFSA does not tell you what your estimated aid will be. It gives you a SAR…student aid report…and on that is your EFC (expected family contribution).
Where did you see your estimated award? The only estimated award that comes up on a FAFSA is your eligibility for the Pell Grant…with an EFC of $0 it would be $5900.
Look at your SAR…what is your EFC?
My advice…wait until your submitted FAFSA processes. It will take a few days. Then go in and amend it to reflect the correct school terms.
Did you fill out the FAFSA for the upcoming school year, which begins in a few weeks?
Your FAFSA will be processed within 2-3 days- at that point you could correct it. The school will not be sending you a FA package before then- they don’t work that quickly. However… if for some reason you get a FA award tomorrow or Wednesday, it will be revised once they get the corrected FAFSA.
The $9000 that you saw when you submitted the FAFSA does not mean that you will pay $9000 or that you are getting $9000. The school will send you an award package.
The estimates listed on the FAFSA are for the whole year and assume you will be enrolled full time. Your actual awards may vary from the estimates on the FAFSA. FAFSA is just a form … your school will award your aid, and you will receive a financial aid award letter when the aid package is ready.
Does this mean that the OP does not need to make any corrections?
My concern is that I will only get about 9,000 a year for a school that is 24,000 a year. My estimated reward came in an email with my Pell Grant and Stafford loan. Combine those estimates are around $9,000 and my EFC was 002355. This whole thing started because my school is, at most, $12,000 a semester (At most, 24000 a year). thats with the most expensive dorm and meal plan, which I dont plan on getting, but im just using that as the extreme value it is. This whole started because it seems odd that my minimum family contribution would be 2355 when if im only going to get around 4500 a symester, because the payments from us would be far more than $2,355. This leads me to believe that the estimates are what I would get for 1 semester, not 1 year.
Im doing a FAFSA this late because I am a transfer student and had to finish my course I was currently in to have enough transferable credits and this course finished last Sunday. After it took a week for the transcript to arrive, then I could go ahead and re-do my FAFSA for my current college. I applied to this college Mid-may.
Your EFC is $2355? You don’t know what your total award package will be until you get it from the school. The school will split your award package between fall/spring.
Im looking directly at the email now, and it says my EFC is 002355. Are you saying that, regardless of what those estimates are, ill be getting the Pell grant and Stafford Loan as well as additional awarded to me, or the school decides how much of my Pell and Stafford that I get?
I understand these are all estimates.
You should get a Stafford loan… I am not sure what you will get because the amount goes up slightly each year. Let’s say you get a Stafford loan for $7500. That amount will be split between the fall and spring- that’s about $3750 per semester. If you are eligible for a pell grant, I believe it will also be split between the fall and spring semester. You may be eligible for other things- I don’t know and it also depends on the school. Some schools meet full need, others don’t. Your school will create an award package for you. If you checked “yes” for work study, it may be part of the package as well.
Your EFC is $2355. This means you would get about $3600 a YEAR in Pell Grant money. Your Stafford Loan for second year students would be $6500…total $10,100 for the year…or $5050 per semester. That’s the max you are guaranteed for the EFC of $2355.
If your school costs in the $20,000 a year range…you have half of what you need to attend (I used $20,000 because I’m hoping the less costly room and board will be $4000 less a year).
You college does NOT guarantee to meet full need (I’m guessing this because I know of NO college,that guarantees to meet full need for all that costs $24,000 a year).
When you receive your award letter…you will know for sure what your total aid is.
You know…it’s very possible that the only aid you will receive is the Pell of $3600 and that Loan.
Does your state have any grants for lower income students? If so, would you be receiving that?
What school is this? It sounds like a small public university in your state. Is that correct?
This is water over the dam…but you could have filed your FAFSA the same day you sent in your application. You didn’t have to wait until now.
I am afraid, unfortunately, that this student is going to have a large gap between the total cost of attendance and the aid package that is provided.
Your EFC is the cost estimate that your family is expected to contribute at the minimum. The FAFSA information estimates that this is what your family can pay.
This does not include the cost that you, the student, is expected to contribute.
You are projecting money that will be given to you. Unless something comes directly from the university, you cannot assume what will be given to you. Universities do run out of funds. You don’t get priority funding if you do not apply within the deadlines.