<p>My dd's SAR says our EFC is 0. School reported that our EFC is 2140.00. I logged onto fafsa.gov and looked at our SAR online. It says a change was made on 5/28. I called FAFSA because I didn't know who made the change.
FAFSA told me my dd's school made the changes. They said we must have made a mistake in filling out FAFSA and when we went thru verfivation and sent the school our 1040, they corrected our mistake. </p>
<p>We are not sure what happened but now the SAR does not match our 1040. It was correct to begin with. It is not correct now. This affects the amount of pell grant my dd gets. FAFSA said I would have to call school to find out.</p>
<p>Well, i called the school and the person who answered said there is no way they changed our SAR. She was going to refer this to the director of financial aid, which is who worked on our file. </p>
<p>So, can the school change our SAR? Is it okay that it doesn't match our 1040? </p>
<p>Don't want to be a pest to the school but this is a substantial amount of money.</p>
<p>Yes a school can change the SAR. They can also make mistakes. You can also make mistakes, Mistakes can be made throughout the system. It is up to you to be a pest and find out exactly what your EFC is and where the mistake was made. You need to understand the SAR and the EFC. It is your responsibility to do so. Get all of the papers regarding the situation in a folder, go over the figures, keep them at hand and call the financial aid director, email him/her, and write a letter. Yes, this is important.</p>
<p>They should be able to tell you exactly what figure was changed. Talk to the director and you can get it corrected. We had to do the same thing.</p>
<p>Yes, line 84 should match unless you sent them copies of W-2’s, 1099s or other forms that did not add up to the same number on your 1040! Did you have an IRA rollover by any chance? Although it’s a nontaxable event they sometimes issue a 1099R and the word Rollover has to be manually printed on your 1040 as most tax software doesn’t have that capability. Does the difference between the 1040 and FAFSA AGI match any document you have in your tax file?</p>
<p>No, it does not match any number at all.
The only thing extra they asked for that was not a tax form was a statement of the market value of current assets. we are builders/developers and unfortunately, the value is 0 right now. That shouldn’t be it.</p>
<p>I am feeling like I am a bother to the financial aid office but this will be about 2200 more in pell grant money and right now, that is a lot for us!</p>
<p>being a “bother” is a social issue, and has to do with manners</p>
<p>“correcting errors” is a business issue </p>
<p>of course you are “bothering” them to resolve this discrepancy; you are in a business transaction and it is your job to “bother” them - in a kind way - until the error is resolved</p>
<p>too many people apply social rules to a business transaction</p>
<p>remind yourself of the hourly Return On Investment . . . $2200 . . . 3 hours spent correcting . . that’s a decent hourly rate, no?</p>
<p>I’ve been a “bother” for less, if that helps any lol! No, of course you shouldn’t let it go when it’s something your D is entitled to receive and also needs! It’s their job to process aid correctly and I’m sure it will be handled in a professional manner. Let us know how it turns out, k?</p>
<p>Agree, alittle self advocacy goes a long way. Also there is a huge difference between needing and wanting to understand a process and being a ‘bother.’ Try using words like, “Help me understand”, “I’m not understanding what caused xyz”, “Do you have time to walk me through the steps that caused this change or is there a convenient time we could schedule a time to talk.” Those are ways to be self advocating but not being a pain in the behind.</p>
<p>You should be able to see which school corrected the FAFSA. Get into your FAFSA & view the corrected transaction. There should be something that tells you who made the corrections - the school code should be there. If you have trouble figuring out how to determine the school using the code, google search it - you’ll find it pretty easily that way. If you sent verification materials to more than one school, it is possible another school made the changes. If it WAS the school you think it was, and if the changes make no sense, it is possible that a financial aid officer made changes to the wrong file. It does happen. </p>
<p>Once you have done the preliminary investigation, definitely make sure you find out what is going on. I am a financial aid officer. I make mistakes. With the thousands of documents I review, it does happen. I am MORE than happy to fix things!</p>
<p>You are not being a pest. You are doing the right thing in following up on this.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody.
This is what i have done.</p>
<p>I tried to reach someone again all day in the financial aid office. Only reached the person who answers the phone who assured me they did not change the SAR as there is no way for them to that. I asked for two different people, be name, to call me back - never heard anything. I already know the school made the correction - FAFSA told me they did.</p>
<p>So, I called FAFSA back. Told them the story again.
The thing is what was changed is Line 84. Line 84 asks for “adjusted Gross Income from the IRS form”. There is nothng gray about this. It is not left up for interpretation. FAFSA agreed and told me how to change it back to the number that matches the 1040. </p>
<p>Now, since there has been another correction, it will be sent back to the school. </p>
<p>Please do NOT depend on your changes!!! We make our own changes during verification & adjust awards based on those changes. If a student makes a change after we verify, we do not use his changes. We have verified the file - we must use the verified figures to disburse aid. If the school made a mistake during verification, they must make the updates for the necessary changes. Please don’t disregard this advice. I am a finaid officer.</p>
<p>I think Linda needs to contact a bigwig at Financial Aid either by phone or by email since she’s not getting correct info from whomever is answering the phone…</p>
<p>Is your D at Parsons?</p>
<p>If so, contact this lady…</p>
<p>Eileen F. Doyle, Assistant Vice President for Student Financial Services
229-8930 x3601</p>
<p>Yes, d is at Parsons.
From what I have learned, a woman named Marilyn did my d’s financial aid package. I understood her to be the top person in the office.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. ya’ll are great!</p>