<p>Let me preface this by saying I'm not sure how this whole process works and have done very little research....</p>
<p>We are fortunate to have had gifts from grandparents when S was an infant and we saved like mad for college. Most of the money was in S's name. We filled out the FAFSA form in January before he went to school and received a Crazy High EFC! We understood and paid full freight his first two years.</p>
<p>S is now a sophomore at an expensive LAC. We have spent down the money in his name and would like to reapply based on current income/assets, etc. His senior year is going to be difficult to fund, given the current state of the stock market. Do we fill out a new form and submit it online or is there a way to simply update figures using current info? Does anybody have experience with a similar situation? We are curious if our EFC will be smaller since the money in S's name is gone. Thanks for any help!</p>
<p>You will need to fill out the 2009-2010 FAFSA. After you enter a few personal details (name/SSN etc) it should come back and say something along the lines of 'you have filed a FAFSA before, do you want to prefill data using the previous FAFSA'. If you select this option it will prefill pesraonal data, not financial data. You have to have the student's PIN number on hand to be able to do this. (I know this works if you did a FAFSA the preceding year - I assume it does if it has been a couple of years).</p>
<p>Student assets and income do have a large impact on the EFC. 20% of student assets go to the EFC compared to @ 5.6% of parents assets over the protected amounts (students have no asset protection). If your own income has not increased much, your assets have decreased, the students assets have decreased, and the student does not have much income -(all these factors affect the EFC), then it is likely the EFC will have dropped.</p>
<p>If your son's assets are drawn down, you should get a lower EFC. Have you tried doing the FAFSA4Caster (<a href="http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov)?%5B/url%5D">www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov)?</a> It will give you an idea of your EFC (plus, the non-financial info rolls over to the real FAFSA when you are ready to file it). Are any of his assets in a 529? If so, there is a beneficial change for 2009-10 ... the value of the 529 is listed as a parent asset even if it is in the student's name. This is beneficial due to the asset protection for parents that students do not receive.</p>