<p>Is there a way to attach a document to convey special circumstances to the FAFSA application? DH had his salary cut but they realized that he had been shorted overtime pay for 2 years so they paid him a one time check of $14K. Obviously next year will be a LOT less including the pay cut so how to be convey that? Son just applied to college for 2013. </p>
<p>The one time check also put us over the limit for CalGrant by $2000 so is there anyway to "fix" our situation?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>You have to contact each school for a special circumstances adjustment. There is no way to do it through FAFSA itself. If the school approves an adjustment, they can adjust your income to reflect this and rerun the new numbers through the EFC formula.</p>
<p>Thank you. Do I contact the schools after (and IF) he is accepted, after we file taxes and ammend the FAFSA and CSS, or would some other time be best? What do you suggest? Thanks again.</p>
<p>I would contact the schools and ask them what they would prefer you to do. It will probably vary by school.</p>
<p>Thanks again, so do you know if we are out of luck for the CalGrant or is it possible that each individual UC can make a change?</p>
<p>I’m not a Calgrant expert, but I believe that adjustments are NOT made to your AGI and that is what the Calgrant is based on. If your income exceeds the Calgrant threshold for the year, I don’t think an adjustment will be made as can sometimes be done for federally funded need based aid. Check with one of the CA schools or maybe this info is on the Calgrant website.</p>
<p>Thank you Thumper. It’s a bummer this had to happen this year!</p>
<p>Fido, please contact someone within the Calgrant organization to get an answer. If this is really a deal breaker for you in terms of costs, and your income is not able to be adjusted so you qualify for the Calgrant, perhaps a gap year should be considered.</p>
<p>Or is there enough of that overtime payment that it would cover what the Calgrant normally would have paid?</p>
<p>I would have begged . . . begged . . . to have that one-time payment split into multiple smaller payments. But it’s too late for that now.</p>
<p>Did the one-time check include interest on all those overtime payments he never received? It should have . . .</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d check and double-check that he got every penny that was owed him and, if not, I’d make damned sure they come up with the rest!</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper. If this one time payment means much less aid, then when your child is accepted, have your child ask to defer enrollment for a year. Then don’t take ANY classes during that gap…not even CC classes. </p>
<p>Did your child apply to any UCs? Was income below $80k? If so, then what you lost in cal grant may be made up in UC grant.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your help. It’s as though we got screwed twice. They wouldn’t let DH take half then and half this year and I just finished doing the “pretend” estimated taxes and sent in the fafsa and we are over the $80K threshold by just $1200 after making around $68K for the last 10 years. On top of it all, he has to now take 5 furlough days and a 4% paycut for this upcoming year so we are really sunk. I didn’t see the paperwork until now and DH told me it was 8K so I wasn’t too worried at the time but that was just his net. Oh yes, now we have a big tax bill too. </p>
<p>DS applied to a bunch of UC schools. By the end of the application process, he once again said he wanted to stay in California and most likely go to UCLA if accepted but he applied to a few others as backup. Doing the estimates at $68K, our portion would have been around $15K before losing the CalGrant. That was a stretch but now there is NO way. UCs do not defer acceptance for freshman applicants either so I don’t know what we are going to do for him now.</p>
<p>Dodgersmom, Hi! thanks for your reply and no they didn’t include interest. I think the whole thing was shady but what’s done is done and I just have to move forward. They just marched into his office one day and said he wasn’t supposed to work full time and teach a class too so they cut his full time job. He’d been doing this for over 10 years having previously given up the 2nd class he taught as a condition to work full time. The union rep was called in and told them the school had to pay him overtime for all those years and then it turned out they only had to go back 2 years so it was awful, sneaky, but he is supposed to be greatful that he at least still has a job.</p>
<p>Do any of you know if we should still apply for a calgrant even though we know we will be turned down? If he doesn’t get it for freshman year, can he still qualify for the next year? I just need to know if we should at least apply because his school does all the gpa verification by snail mail and we have to provide the forms with stamped addressed envelopes I would have to get ready.</p>
<p>The irony is that most of you know I have been pouring over these boards, learning everything I could about how to afford college and thought we were okay until this happened. Poor DS! He worked so so hard on his applications I don’t have the heart to tell him just yet that we are screwed. If I had seen DH’s income before today, we would have approached the whole thing differently. I know there were some colleges that DS could have gotten money from with his over 4.0 and his 35 ACT but now the application due dates and/or scholarship dates have passed. To top it all off, he has to get all FOUR wisdom teeth pulled Monday. So sad right now…and my dad just went to the hospital for a broken hip. This is not a good way to start the New Year but it sure seems like unlucky 2013.</p>
<p>Fidoprincess - </p>
<p>I’d talk to the union rep. Under state law, there should be penalties for failing to pay overtime. I would (seriously) see if you can’t refuse to accept the payment and demand a larger payment with penalties & interest. The union should have a lawyer you can talk to. If you refuse the payment they tendered, that solves the problem. Call and ask.</p>
<p>If the union won’t help you, contact a private labor attorney NOW. This might be fixable. It’s at least worth a phone call to find out.</p>
<p>make a new thread in the FA forum with a title such as:</p>
<p>ACT 35, 4.0 GPA, needs near full ride from schools whose deadlines haven’t yet passed.</p>
<p>Then in the body of the post briefly explain that suddenly you won’t qualify for the aid that is greatly needed. </p>
<p>What is your son’s major?</p>
<p>Was your son a NMSF? If so, there are still schools that will award him a lot.</p>
<p>thanks again all. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and give me ideas.
Dodgersmom, we talked to a union rep, I pm’ed you.
mom2collegekids, Son wants to do engineering and/or physics. He was not a nmsf-another blunder we didn’t know about at the time-ugh. I’ll post and see if anything comes up, thanks for the idea. I’ve been searching like crazy but everything I’ve found had a deadline of yesterday or earlier.</p>
<p>Just posting this information about Cal Grant for anyone looking in the future. It’s Bleak!</p>
<p>If a student doesnt qualify for an entitlement award as a freshman, they will NEVER receive one for all the rest of the years at a California College no matter what the income in the years following freshman year. </p>
<p>Cal Grant applications are separated into two categories, Entitlement (A and B) or Competitive (A and B). Recent high school graduates (graduated from high school on July 1, 2011 or later) and current community college students under age 28 who will be transferring to a four-year college in 2013-14 will be considered for Entitlement awards. </p>
<p>Everyone else, i.e., non-freshmen at four-year schools and older students will be considered only for Competitive awards. There are only 11,250 Competitive awards available to continuing students in four-year schools across the whole state of California, while there is no limit to the number of Entitlement awards. A competitive award is based on a points system that awards points not for grades and merit but for disadvantages.</p>
<p>Cal Grant Award for a private California College is worth $9542 per year but you must qualify as a freshman with income less that $80,100. Your child will not qualify and will NEVER be able to qualify for the remaining years no matter how low your income falls. The Cal Grant would have paid ALL tuition at a UC or ALL tuition at a California State college but not fees, room and board. </p>
<p>Only one UC, Davis, allows students to defer for one year but ds didn’t apply there. His only choice is to go to a cc and try to tranfer or take a year off but he would have to reapply all over again and the UCs don’t favor those students and they face a high rate of rejection at any top tier UCs. Some special deferments are granted for military service, for example, but not for this situation.</p>
<p>I can’t believe this!!! It’s 3am and I can’t sleep so I have been researching like crazy and guess what I just found!!</p>
<p>There is a NEW INCOME LIMIT for 2013-2014 and it’s no longer $80,100. It is NOW $83,100 for a family of 4. As long as I don’t get any interest income over $1400 (which has never happened!) we will QUALIFY!! I can sleep now…</p>
<p>Oh good!!! Congrats!!!</p>
<p>Yes, I’m relieved but we still don’t qualify for the Blue and Gold. That cutoff is still under $80K. They do have an appeal process though and on the form, it has a space for a “one time payment” reason so there is hope!</p>
<p>Perhaps you can make a page 1 adjustment on your tax return which adjusts the AGI, like an IRA contribution etc. Check with an accountant.</p>
<p>For the schools, they should be able to adjust the FAFSa based on the special circumstances, but might not do it until they see the tax return showing lower income</p>
<p>Thank you somemom! That is the whole answer to getting my AGI down under the $80K. I thought that we had to make the contribution to an IRA by 12/31 but now see we have until April 15th to do it. You are a LIFESAVER!! Now if DS gets into a UC, he will be able to qualify for not only the CalGrant but their Blue and Gold program too! Thank goodness for these boards!!!</p>