Happy February Bloggers!

So now that January 1st has come and gone, I am *hopeful* that the majority of you have visited www.fafsa.ed.gov and submitted a 2011-2012 FAFSA with your estimated tax figures for the 2010 tax year.  And maybe, a few of you have filed your taxes already and submitted your FAFSA with those figures!

So, what’s next?

For some of you, you may have already been offered admission to some of the schools you listed on your FAFSA.  You may have even deposited at a school.  But, almost all of you have not likely received a financial aid offer for the 2011-2012 academic year yet. 

Once your schools have all of their ducks in a row, they will begin to look at all the FAFSAs sent to them.  The school then sorts these FAFSAs into two groups:  a group that will be awarded financial aid based simply on the self reported information included on the FAFSA, and a group that is selected for what’s called Verification.

Verification ensures that the information reported on the FAFSA and thus the resulting Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is accurate so that the school can award accurate financial aid figures for that student applicant.  All schools receive a percentage of FAFSAs that are “flagged” as selected for verification by the Department of Education (DOE).  A “flagged” FAFSA must be verified in order for a school to pay any federal or state financial aid to that student’s account.  Period. The end. Any student who submits a FAFSA has the potential to be selected by the DOE for verification. 

OK – so what exactly will your school want from you if you are selected?  Most importantly to know is that the school will contact you directly via mail or some mode of online communication if you need to provide verification documents.  In order to ensure that you receive this request you must be checking your mail or email or online student account for communication from your school and if contact information for you changes, you must update your school!!

Most likely, a request for verification documents will include (so start getting these things together if you can):

For Dependent Students:

·        Signed copies of your parent(‘s) federal tax returns (the parent who was listed on the FAFSA) along with all schedules and W-2s

·        Signed copies of student’s federal tax returns along with all schedules and W-2s (NOTE:  If the student and/or parent did not and was not required to file a tax return, the school may require some sort of form from you to verify that you did not file).

·        Dependent Verification Worksheet for you to verify your household size along with all forms of untaxed income that may not be reflected on your tax return.

For Independent Students:

·        Your school might require verification of your independent status i.e. court documents, etc.

·        Signed copies of student’s federal tax returns along with all schedules and W-2s

·        Independent Verification Worksheet for you to verify your household size along with all forms of untaxed income that may not be reflected on your tax return.

There are of course, schools that will require information in addition to what’s listed above.

Something to remember throughout all of this is that if your Financial Aid office sends a request to you for additional information (like the value of a rental property, let’s say), it is typically not because they think you lied or were intentionally trying to be misleading.  We understand that questions on the FAFSA can be hard to understand or you may have just missed the question all together by accident.  The fact of the matter is simply that if information appears to be discrepant, we are usually required by federal regulations to reconcile that discrepancy and that’s where the request for additional information stems from.

If you have questions about any of the documentation that is being requested from you, please contact the financial aid office at that school so that the request can be explained and your responses accurate.  This speeds up the process for everybody and gets you an award more quickly to make a decision about your deposit.

I hope this was informative – questions are welcome! This verification piece can really be one of the biggest issues for a lot of families when it comes to finalizing their financial aid awards.  Requests for verification documentation are important to understand but even more important to simply respond to.  Do not ignore a request; especially if it’s from a school you’re interested in attending.

Until next month, my dears!
Amanda