<p>The report from FAFSA says that my form was selected for verification. I contacted the school immediately so I could get a head start on getting everything together. They said they don't start pulling for verification until after March 1 and it is not automatic that they will select us for verification just because I was notified by the feds. I had no idea they were two separate things. I have double checked the accuracy of the form. All I can do now is wait to hear from the school?</p>
<p>You will probably be asked for your parents and your own tax returns.</p>
<p>Actually I am the parent. That's what I am assuming. I was just surprised to find out that the FAFSA folks target for verification independently of the school and wondered what the chances are that the school won't do the same thing. I'm not concerned about it except for the hassle.</p>
<p>Don't do anything until you hear from the SCHOOL. The school will tell you IF they want something from you and they will tell you what to send. This varies by school. But if they ask for information...send it ASAP.</p>
<p>FAFSA is a very big clearing house that practically all schools use. The verification star may be particularly important to state schools. Our (private) uni asks all students to send in the same materials (tax returns, W-2s, whatever) regardless of being targeted for verification. So it seems to me that schools use the info from FAFSA in different ways.</p>
<p>Cartera, check the school's website. There is a good chance that they have the verification forms posted as PDF. The verification is a standard procedure and should be entirely painless.</p>
<p>FAFSA (Department of Education) randomly pick one out of every three applicants for the verification process, as a means of tryiing to ensure that studnets, parents and schools are following the regulations. When the FAFSA indicates one has been selected for verification, the school has two options: request the necessary documents or "ignore" the selection because they have already met the required 33% of their applicants. Some schools choose to verify every FAFSA application that was randomly selected because it can be too time consuming to keep track of the 33%. Others track the 33% requirement in great detail, so they know once they have hit the mark. Some schools have made the conscience choice to verify 100% of their applicants. Schools can also select a FAFSA for verification, even if the DOE didn't randomly select them...if it appears to contain conflicting information (information that doesn't fit the norm).</p>
<p>Our school verifies all applications that were selected by DOE and any with conflicting information...its just easier for us this way. Sounds like the school in question in tracking the number of students going through the verification process so they don't have to verify any more than necessary. If a school has 10000 of its applicants applying for aid, that's a minimum of 3333 students who must be selected for verification.....and that takes a LOT of time and effort and storage room.</p>
<p>xiggi - there is a checklist on the website that has not been updated for '09 yet -or at least it had not been a couple of weeks ago. That is what prompted my call to them - I was already getting things together when they told me to be a little more patient and wait to hear from them. </p>
<p>Thanks for the info Nikkiil - I wondered the chances of getting selected. I doubt mine was random - it may have had more to do with the fact that my income is waaay down from last year. They probably thought I had left a zero or two off.</p>
<p>Given all the mistakes we see people have made in filling out the FAFSA, it seems like verification is more likely to find errors than cheaters, there are probably so many more errors and it probably helps some people and hurts others when the errors are corrected.</p>
<p>I recall being somewhat annoyed to be verified year after year, just the whole process of doing the estimate, doing taxes, doing corrections, then doing verification. Having read the various errors people make I can understand why so many are verified</p>
<p>Fortunately -and unfortunately - I have my own business so my taxes are all done and ready to go. I don't have to wait for anyone else to send out info.</p>
<p>I didnt save the SAR, we have an EFC of 99,999. Do they pull people with EFCs of 99,999 for verification? How can I check if wer were pulled? thanks</p>
<p>kayf, you would have had an asterick next to your efc and it would have said something about being chosen for verification. </p>
<p>I think that people with a higher EFC are less likely to be verified because you wouldn't be getting any federal aid and you most likely are a 'full pay' person except for the kid getting merit aid (which is definitely possible even for a full pay family).</p>
<p>you can go back into the SAR and check if you didn't look before.</p>
<p>Kay-- your SAR is online, even if you didn't save it. Go back to the FAFSA web site and you will find it.</p>
<p>woot! im lucky too =[
Your FAFSA has been selected for a review process called verification.</p>
<p>it is no big deal. We have been selected every year for all 3 students.</p>
<p>so its just the worksheet right? we fill it out, make copies and send to individual schools?</p>
<p>At our schools we had to complete the schools own form and send that plus copies of tax returns, W2s and 1099s for untaxed SS income (which is not reportable this year so it will be interesting to see if they still ask for it).</p>
<p>Your school(s) will tell you what they want you to send.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom, if it's a FAFSA school, they probably won't request the 1099 for SS info. The intent seems to be that untaxed ss info not be collected - therefore, I am guessing that most will interpret that to mean a check-off on the verification worksheet, rather than a number with supporting info. But it's up to each school.</p>
<p>NiikkiiL, storage room ... hopefully, your school will soon scan & index documents. It's such a wonderful thing to just click on documents right on the computer - we can even annotate them on the computer. If I need to look at citizenship documents, tax returns, PJ letters, etc. I can just pull them up. It's so cool.</p>
<p>kelsmom,</p>
<p>My institution is sjust crawling out of the stone age....I am still performing manual calculations for my adult program. We are looking into going paperless, but it will be a slow and tedious process to obtain the financial backing to get it into place. I can't even get enough licenses for PowerFaids, so all of the counselors are having share the awarding software.</p>
<p>I know what you are going through, because I worked in financial aid before the computer era. We hand-packaged, entered data by hand, etc. I think that is why I appreciate my office's technology so much.</p>