I am having a puzzling issue with the FAFSA. For three years I have had my oldest daughter Child1 with a EFC of 23000 and eventually has come down to 20000 this year (probably due to existing student loans that helped lower the EFC number.)
After I filed Child1’s FAFSA about a week later I filed for my younger daughter Child2 for the first time as she will be entering college in 2019-2012. For some reason, Child2’s EFC is 22000? Her number came up higher than child 1? I don’t understand. I thought EFC would go down significantly when there is a second college student. Neither child has more money in their name than the other.
Is this a known issue with the FAFSA? Is this expected? Judging by the FAQ’s reading as much as I can, EFC numbers should go down significantly , certainly NOT go UP ?
Is there anyone I could talk to in the FAFSA org bout this?
I was expecting both children to have lower numbers in general because now there are two. Is this a wrong assumption??
Could that be your total EFC for both?
Did you enter that there would be 2 in college on both FAFSA forms?
Any chance you did an IRA or TSA rollover in 2017?
Did you use the IRS DRT to complete both FAFSA forms?
Did you have any bump in income in 2017?
Your kid’s college loans would not reduce her EFC…
Thank you.
Yes i did enter “2”… I am going to change it to “3” because now my wife is in college at nights trying to finish a Bachelor Degree in Teaching… great… three people to pay for. Ugh.
The “EFC” numbers appeared on the FAFSA email for each child. If it was for “both” wouldn’t that number go DOWN and NOT UP ?
No; do not do this. A parent attending college may not be counted on FAFSA as a person in the household attending college.
74. How many people in your parents’ household (from question 73) will be college students between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020?
Always count yourself as a college student. Do not include your parents.
BelknapPoint: Ugh… my first daughters school’s financial aide councillor said I should… It is killing me that there is so much bad information out there some of it coming from people who are supposed to know the answers…
What happens if I did put “3” (haven’t yet).
Thanks.
No…you can’t count your wife on your kids’ FAFSA forms.
If you put “3” your EFC might go down…but that isn’t an honest way to complete the FAFSA.
Did you use the IRS DRT to import your 2017 tax return information?
Could you please answer my other questions in my previous post?
Does your second child have any assets (now) and income (from 2017) in her own name? How much?
If you manually entered the information…any chance you put parent info in both the parent and student sections.
Did BOTH of your kids have $20,000 EFC for 2019-2020?
Thumper1:
Did you enter that there would be 2 in college on both FAFSA forms? Yes. Just verified again in the SAR reports.
Any chance you did an IRA or TSA rollover in 2017? No rollover of any kind.
Did you use the IRS DRT to complete both FAFSA forms? I tried many times to use the IRS import tool but it would NOT work for m.
Did you have any bump in income in 2017? less than 1percent.
Your question on IRS DRT (i assume you mean the IRS import tool).
I canNOT get this to work for me personally. It does work fine for both my daughters’ tax returns.
I have tried every combo of caps, abbreviations for street names, etc.
IS THERE ANYONE TO TALK TO ABOUT FIGURING OUT WHY THIS DOES NOT WORK??
Ok…if you manually entered the info…check these things.
- Make sure parent financials are ONLY entered in the parent section.
- Did you do an amended tax return in 2017? If so, I don’t believe you can use the IRS DRT.
- Since you manually entered the financials...print out and look at EACH entry. Make sure the numbers are correct and that you didn’t add an extra zero or put a decimal point in the wrong spot.
And any chance your 2018-2019 FATSA has the mistake, and your EFC should have been…$40,000?
thumper1: it has been in the 20000 for three years for Child1.
EFC has been in the 20000 for three years for Child1.
Now this year EFC is 2000 for Child1 and EFC is 21000 for Child2 !
You did something wrong. Really…it looks like you entered income twice…maybe once in parent section and once in student section.
Wait until this processes, and go in…and check EACH item on both FAFSA forms for accuracy.
There are many reasons the DRT doesn’t work. If you have a joint tax return, it often won’t work if the parent who has the FSA ID isn’t listed first on the tax return. Or the name isn’t exactly the same as the name used to get the FSA ID. Or the street address is different. If there has been an amendment of any kind. If you have a password because of fraud in the past. Etc, Etc. If it doesn’t work, you have to enter manually.
When you completed the first FAFSA, it asks at the end if ‘your parents have another child to file’ and then will transfer the info exactly to the second application. Did you do that? If so, the parent info would be exactly the same and then the difference would be due to a student’s income or assets.
The EFC should be half if you now have 2 in college. If it was $20k last year, it should be about $10k (each) with 2 in college.
twoinanddone: Yup, I did have the FAFSA copy parent info to the next child for the second application.
As to the IRS connectory, i have tried all ways as you suggested, on multiple days.
Something is wrong. (And you can’t count your wife’s schooling on your kids’ FAFSAs)
What is your household income? Any assets?
Are you certain tha parent income or assets weren’t put in the child’s sections?
When you had one child in college and doing FAFSA and getting an EFC in the low $20k, that would suggest a household income around $100k…is that right?