# FAFSA.. a college changed my EFC !!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2011, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488 "2011-03-30T11:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/1 "2011-03-30T11:03:39Z")
I submitted a FAFSA six weeks ago. A few days ago I got an email notice that a change was made. I glanced at it and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Yesterday I realized that it was done by a college. A college that my daughter is accepted at but that we haven’t decided on yet. It was a big change and they did it without any explanation!!! I think I know what hapenned… based on a household questionnaire we sent them they see that our oldest daughter will be in grad school next year. I was unclear how to fill out the FAFSA and reported three kids in college next year. Apparently only the two undergrads count. That’s my guess… my real question is where does the school come off making a change like they did without making it clear to me why they did it. What if it was done by a staffer who didn’t know what they were doing? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/2 "2011-03-30T11:16:18Z")
Because the FAFSA is an unholy conspiracy between the government and the school designed to make the financial aid process even more difficult and stressful than it needs to be. I don’t think the information we submit through FAFSA is in a real sense ours. I beleive somewhere in that unreadable lawyer-spawned document it says that the information can be updated by any interested party, and that would include any school the application was submitted to. But this is just a guess on my part, since I am still trying to reconcile the “Expected Family Contribution” (which we really could afford) with the actual amounts the schools are billing us. ---
**Author:** ![StrangerThanFiction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@StrangerThanFiction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangerThanFiction)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/3 "2011-03-30T16:15:15Z")
Mrs. Fiction works in student financial aid. Here’s what she has to say about the process: > [@Mrs. Fiction](#): > > Federal law mandates that 30% of FAFSAs are randomly selected for audit. These audits are performed by the schools, and many choose to audit more than 30%. Mine does. When a school requests your 1040s and W2s, they are using that information to verify the information on your FAFSA and find what your true EFC should be. This system is in place because many people make mistakes on FAFSAs (and a few make erroneous entries on purpose). The idea is to protect your tax dollars. When a school audits your FAFSA, any errors will be corrected and the FAFSA will be updated. Note that they are not “changing” it for fun. The changes occur because there was an error in the original submission. If no errors are found, no changes are made. Also, the changes can work both ways, but more times than not the FAFSAs that I find mistakes on have understated the EFC. > > I can’t speak for every school, but I underwent months of training to do this part of my job, and there is a lot of federal and internal regulation involved. It’s _not_ something we take lightly, and it _is_ something we do a lot of. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/4 "2011-03-30T16:21:08Z")
If you think that’s bad try getting declared independent for Financial Aid purposes before you’re 25 or married. I knew people in college who’s parents really managed to screw them over bad by refusing to even fill out the forms let alone pay the EFC. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/5 "2011-03-30T16:43:21Z")
What I don’t get is the corrections they are making. Everything they ask is very straightforward, and I answer it honestly. Yet every year they report having to fix something. I’m wondering if they are fixing things based on erroneous information. I also find it odd that any college would do more audits than required. The only way it makes sense is people often mess up and get lower awards than they deserve. But, if that’s the case, why pull the people who have already gotten the maximum amount? ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/6 "2011-03-31T10:02:00Z")
> [@StrangerThanFiction](#): > > Mrs. Fiction works in student financial aid. Here’s what she has to say about the process: Thanks for the info. Can you ask Mrs Fiction if my theory could be correct… that they took my total EFC and decided to divide it by two instead of three because our 22 year old daughter will be in grad school next fall??? ---
**Author:** ![StrangerThanFiction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@StrangerThanFiction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangerThanFiction)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/7 "2011-03-31T12:41:57Z")
Yes, **What the … !!!** , that’s almost certainly your situation. I don’t know all of the gory details (and Mrs. Fiction isn’t here right now), but I’m pretty sure grad students don’t count toward the number of students a household has in a higher education institution, or they are “worth less” as far as how much they reduce your EFC. **BigT** , a common mistake she sees is people generalizing on their FAFSAs. Nobody pays _exactly_ $3000 in taxes. But somebody may round and put that number on the form, thinking it’s good enough. She says that big round numbers like that pretty much guarantee that a FAFSA will be audited. She also sees her fair share of FAFSAs that have the incomes understated or taxes paid overstated. For example, somebody who makes $26,000 a year should not have paid $8000 last year in income taxes (she actually saw that reported once). The reason a school would audit more than the number of forms required by law is to make sure they themselves are in compliance with Department of Education regulations. Remember, the school does not decide what your EFC should be, that number is dictated by federal regulation. However, the government doesn’t have the time or resources to validate the tens of millions of FAFSAs that are filled out every year. That’s why the schools are the ones doing the auditing and making the changes. Schools themselves are audited by the Dept. of Ed. on a regular basis to ensure they are not funneling more money to students than the regulations allow. If it were up to the school, your EFC would be set at zero and they’d have more business because students spend more money when Uncle Sam foots the bill. But if the DoE auditors find lots of students who are awarded too much money (because the school is allowing erroneous FAFSAs through), that school is at risk of losing their Title IV funding (the ability to get students federal loans and grants), effectively putting themselves out of business. Apparently some schools are lenient on exactly how precisely FAFSAs are filled out, but Mrs. Fiction’s is _very_ strict about it. ---
**Author:** ![Byrdman15](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85e7bf/32.png) [@Byrdman15](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byrdman15)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/8 "2011-09-30T00:44:40Z")
If Mrs. Fiction is still available, I was wondering if a school has verified my fafsa’s and I recognize a mistake I made in completing my fafsa can I correct the mistake and will the school adjust my financial aid award? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/9 "2011-09-30T11:08:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > What I don’t get is the corrections they are making. Everything they ask is very straightforward, and I answer it honestly. Yet every year they report having to fix something. I’m wondering if they are fixing things based on erroneous information. > > I also find it odd that any college would do more audits than required. The only way it makes sense is people often mess up and get lower awards than they deserve. But, if that’s the case, why pull the people who have already gotten the maximum amount? I also find it really weird that, every time they did it, I still wound up with the same EFC: $0. And no, I wasn’t rounding anything. The instructions say to get the numbers from the tax forms, so that’s exactly what I did. Yet I still get four years of audits. And the idea that the DoE would punish them despite doing the required number of audits and getting them right just is asinine. That’s basically saying they are actually required to do more audits than the law says. I still say it only makes sense if the school thinks that they are likely being underpaid. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/10 "2011-09-30T11:10:24Z")
> [@Byrdman15](#): > > If Mrs. Fiction is still available, I was wondering if a school has verified my fafsa’s and I recognize a mistake I made in completing my fafsa can I correct the mistake and will the school adjust my financial aid award? Not unless you go to my old school can you be sure that the school will fix your mistake. Still, I know you can [file a correction](https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1112/help/cotwfaq04.htm) if you filed online, so surely there’s a way to do it by paper, too. ---
**Author:** ![StrangerThanFiction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@StrangerThanFiction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangerThanFiction)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fafsa-a-college-changed-my-efc/576488/11 "2011-10-29T02:09:09Z")
> [@Byrdman15](#): > > If Mrs. Fiction is still available, I was wondering if a school has verified my fafsa’s and I recognize a mistake I made in completing my fafsa can I correct the mistake and will the school adjust my financial aid award? Sorry it took so long to get back to you. In this hypothetical situation, has the FAFSA already been verified by the school, or simply selected for verification? If it has been verified, your mistake has very likely already been corrected. If it has only been selected for verification, the mistake will be fixed during the process, and you would be wasting your time trying to fix it. Not only that, but if you try to fix it while it’s in the process of verification you will make the job tougher on the verification office. You may be able to see what changes are made to your FAFSA during the process. At her institution, Mrs. Fiction is able to pull up all the history of her version of your student aid report, so she can tell you what has been changed.