<p>I have been appealing my pell grant since about mid-summer and it just came through today. I got 2100 per semester. My sister is getting the full pell grant.</p>
<p>What can I do to appeal this decision. I live with my mom who is single, she makes about 32,000 a year with like 6,000 from child support last year. I only made about 1,000 over the summer.</p>
<p>I already went through the whole loss of income form and it was accepted but I thought when it was accepted they would give me the full amount of the pell?</p>
<p>Is there any thing I can do now to make them change there minds.</p>
<p>I know COA has a lot to do with this but me and my sister have the same fafsa and she gets more?</p>
<p>If you and your sister have the same EFC, your COA must be the limiting factor since Pell is awarded first. Are you a full-time student? If so, what is your COA based on your housing choice? If you and your sister do not have the same EFC then you need to compare SARs and find out what the difference is.</p>
<p>Well my efc started out at 01514 which is pretty good but this is back in Feb. when my school changed something (I’m still not sure what they changed), but then it went up to 02197 and that is that last number on the fafsa website. I just got the results back today of the loss of income form, they increased my pell grant from 1,700 to 2,100. Last year I was awarded the full pell of like 2,675 or something like that and the thing is my mother actually made less money but I am not getting the same. </p>
<p>Yes 2,700 per semester, there is no offered housing from the college or I would live there.</p>
<p>It appears that they have reduced your EFC to under $1400 now. This is likely correct since you would have had to submit documents to get professional judgement. There is no way to appeal PJ that I know of. Having a successful appeal doesn’t mean that they can award full Pell - they can only change the underlying data (ie. income) and then must follow the award schedules based on the new EFC.</p>
<p>Clearly, there is a difference between your FAFSA and your sibling’s. Is it possible that your sister’s FAFSA is incorrect and she simply wasn’t verified? Did some qualifier like reduced lunch/ability to file 1040A or EZ, etc. or some asset number change on your FAFSA from the 09/10 filing?</p>
<p>Yes the reduced lunch option was changed from yes to no. That upped my efc by about 30. Does that really make that big of a difference? can I go back and change it now?</p>
<p>I was going to say the same thing as rentof2.</p>
<p>I have two kids in college. D got a generous Pell Grant. S didn’t get any. S earned a lot (relatively speaking) of his own money, whereas D did not.</p>
<p>Students have an income protection allowance of $4500 (plus FICA/medicare, etc.)…how much income did you report (as a student) on this year’s FAFSA? This would be 2009, not 2010, income.</p>
<p>The reduced lunch question is a qualifier for Auto 0 EFC (also requires AGI of $30K or less and 1040A/EZ eligibility). It is also a qualifying question for the simplified EFC formula, which excludes assets. You should always answer these questions carefully and correctly! If you qualified for either of these alternate EFC calculations (ie. anyone in your mom’s household received benefits from a federal means-tested program like reduced school lunches, food stamps, etc. at any time during 2008 or 2009) and made an error I’m pretty sure you can correct it by updating your FAFSA but you should check your SAR first to make sure the school hasn’t already made the change(s). This document will explain the qualifiers and the whole EFC formula:</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do now, I made the mistake and will have to live with it if it’s to late to fix it. I had no idea that this one question would make such a difference. I already emailed my FA officer, is it possible I could get this corrected?</p>
<p>Hopefully kelsmom will respond and advise you as she’s a FA officer for a large univ and knows all the rules cold! I believe that you CAN correct those qualifying questions at any time if you’ve made an error on your original filing. You can always call the FAFSA help line at 1-800-4-FEDAID and I’m sure they could answer your question.</p>
<p>It may or may not reduce your EFC further and give you more eligibility for Pell…we don’t have any way of knowing what else is on your SAR/tax forms.</p>
<p>Did you run your numbers through the formula given you by sk8rmom? See if you come up with the same numbers the school did based on your FAFSA entries.</p>
<p>I am 99% sure that when my mom filled out the fafsa, when it asked for savings out amount she put 500 for both of us.</p>
<p>My sister is 19. When you say verified what do you mean? I know we both had to be appealed by our own financial aid offices, mine just took longer and with different results. The only difference I can think of is the reduced lunch, which I did get reduced lunch in high school.</p>
<p>Are you at different schools? If so, that is most likely the reason your EFCs are different. Doing a special circumstances adjustment is an art, not a science. Each school does it their own way … this is because it is professional judgment, exercised within guidelines but without hard & fast rules. The end result can be very different depending on the school.</p>
<p>You should never go in & change anything on a verified FAFSA. If you believe the school made a change in error (for example, if you DID receive free/reduced lunch), you will need to submit documentation to the school to show them that they are wrong … they will need to do the update.</p>