<p>The new rules just came out about loans/no loans. Redscorpion posted issues in June as thumper said . And also asked questions a few months before that about how to report or file the SS benefits her son was receiving from the father. Perhaps a more accurate picture of the family’s situation has been made available to the university. At any rate, the issue is between the family and UVa. They have gotten very good aid for their child’s first year at least if they got a “full ride.”</p>
<p>And normally I don’t like to go back looking through old posts (and I’ll bet thumper usually doesn’t either), but some of the things said on these two threads have been very confusing.</p>
<p>My apologies…the FAFSA change actually was LAST June, not this year. </p>
<p>But I do have a question. Last year, this parent needed 1099 forms as part of the tax filing. What was the reason for 1099 forms and why we’re they received. Does SS income come via a 1099? Or was that just last year also.</p>
<p>There must have been changes as well this year with income and/or assets . Or guidelines can change from year to year. This really is between the family and UVa. UVa did respond to the family in an email (in post #56). Not sure if the family has appealed or not. Good luck !</p>
<p>let this serve as a warning to people next spring when the offers start coming in,</p>
<p>GET IT IN WRITING. If the FA offer doesn’t state that the grant, scholarship, etc is guaranteed for 4 years (with a possible requirement of a certain GPA), call and ask before deciding to commit.</p>
<p>I would hope that if a school is willing to put it in writing, they will not change it later.
If they won’t put it in writing, then it’s buyer beware.</p>
<p>edit: to the OP, you can apply for a PLUS loan whether or not it’s on the FA papers, if you don’t qualify the student can get a bigger stafford loan (which is a better rate anyhow)</p>
<p>Getting any guarantee in writing about financial aid is nearly impossible. What is usually guaranteed is that the award would be similar given the same need, but since need is determined by the school, and you don’t really get to see what goes into how it is determined at PROFILE schools, there’s not much that can be done if a policy is in place that if your EFC goes up a few hundred dollars it could translate to a few thousand in school aid that is transformed from grant to loan. On paper, on the common data set, this school met the same aid as the year before, just in loan form. </p>
<p>This parent doesn’t need to apply for PLUS. The student is getting the same aid package, just a whole lot more in loan than what he got in grant the year before. Yes, some change is normal, but this is not usual in amount. But hard to say what caused it as this school, UVA is using PROFILE not FAFSA . Their letter to the parent said that the changes that caused the grants to turn into loans had to do with their internal institutional methodolgy used for financial aid. The EFC only went up a few hundred dollars. I don’t know if the need figure even changes since the student is getting the exact same dollar amount in aid, just a lot more in loan instead of the grants from the prior year.</p>
<p>Sue…this student is talking about a need based financial aid award. Need based awards are computed for ONE academic year only. The student then needs to reapply for subsequent years. </p>
<p>I don’t believe you will ever get a guarantee for four years for NEED based awards…because so much can change in terms of financial eligibility from one year to the next.</p>
<p>NOW…for merit awards…absolutely…students absolutely should find out how long they will receive these awards AND the criteria for continuation of them.</p>
<p>UVa is not the first college to do away with the no-loan policy and in UVa’s case all they did was tweak it to make it even more exclusive…The OP has a pretty sweet deal having one year with no loans no matter how you look at it.</p>
<p>I don’t think UVA did a bait and switch when the school laid out from the beginning what their criteria is for receiving and continuing to receive a certain financial aid package.</p>
<p>One of the challenges of’s OP situation was that the family does not have a straight forward financial situation (simply income from work, no investments, not a lot of big assets, no business income/expense etc). When families are dealing with stepparents, non-custodial parents, businesses, self-employment, real estate outside of the primary residence, automatic 0 EFC (where assets may end up not being counted), etc it can be very deceptive when the FAFSA says the family is low income, and the profile, which looks deeper into the family’s financial situation says something else.</p>