gary7

So as an international student who possibly can't pay more than 5-10K on his own, is it useless to apply?

sblake7

I think I made $2.12 per hour at my on-campus job, 1973.

monica1020

We received our son's awards letter on Monday. It really wasn't very much, and he missed getting the Pell Grant because our income was about $5k over the limit. OK, I can live with that...but here's the kicker. That night I got an email from FAFSA telling me that corrections to his application have been made: our EFC jumped from $4k to over
$15k! I called FAFSA on Tuesday and they told me that GA Tech had "corrected" our income and increased it by over $25k!! I've emailed and called our financial aid Rep, but haven't heard a thing back.
Can schools do such a thing?

iconplaybass

Did GT ask for your tax returns? If so, you were subject to "verification." The school looks over your returns and W-2's and can make changes to the FAFSA.

GT corrected my FAFSA but it actually lowered my EFC, although not by much.

Their FA is another story! Are you OOS? Although I did not expect them to "meet need," they awarded me less than half of their own "unmet need" figures.

As for return calls or emails, I have yet to hear back from a Monday email to my GT FA counselor. I am assuming they are swamped with calls and emails.

monica1020

Yes, they have my tax returns, w2's, etc, and yes, our app was subject to verification. I understand that if they don't want to give us any more money for our son, they don't have to. But how can they increase my income when it's clearly stated on our tax returns?
Yes, we're out of state. We live in FL. I think the gap between what is offered and what we need is about $15k/year. This is my son's #1 pick, but I'm getting the feeling that he won't be able to go there.

iconplaybass

There are a lot of OOS students who will find GT unattainable. I'm in the same boat.

So close, and yet so far....

Anyway, as to your FAFSA and EFC, the school can go over your records and make corrections. They cannot just willy-nilly add income. However, if they see an error on your return they can adjust the FAFSA figures. Perhaps they saw income improperly reported on the 1040 or a deduction taken twice. Who knows? You should call them and find out the details.

monica1020

I have called and emailed...still waiting for my FA rep to call me back.

I have to start thinking about how to break it to the boy that he may not be able to go there...

sblake7

Monica-

Log into FAFSA, and look at the most recent SAR. That's the one that has the data input that GT corrected. Compare the data entry points with the SAR as it was when you submitted it, and look for anything that's been changed. In particular, look at the parental income and asset numbers, and student asset numbers. Also the number of dependents, and perhaps the number in college. You'll find there what they changed.

UCSC changed ours because I transposed a couple numbers when inputting, but it only changed our EFC by $1.

monica1020

Great suggestion. I compared the data and found the line item that was changed by GATech was the "Parents' Untaxed Portions of Pensions". We showed a rollover of my husband's 401k when he switched jobs last year. According to the IRS, this is not taxable income.
None of the other schools that sent awards letters used this amount to issue a correction, only GATech.
Can they add an item as income when the IRS doesn't consider it income?

sblake7

Yeah- it's income, just not taxed income that's included in your AGI. So it gets added to the AGI. It's the difference between 16a and 16b on the 1040, right?

Just because it's not taxes, doesn't mean it's not available for use for college. It gets added to the formula as income.

sblake7

Wait-- it was a roll over? So it remains in a 401K? Or was it pension money you actually received, but was untaxed?

monica1020

Caramba! They were the ONLY school that did this.

Does this now affect the awards other schools offered?

sblake7

Looks like they took the number from 1040 line 16a (untaxes portion of Pensions), and added it to FAFSA Q95e (untaxed portion of parent's IRA distributions) or 95f (untaxed portion of parent's pension distribution). But the detailed instructions online clearly exclude rollovers:

"Untaxed portions of IRA distributions. Enter your parents' untaxed portions of IRA distributions. This amount can be calculated from IRS Form 1040 (line 15a minus 15b) or 1040A (line 11a minus 11b). Exclude rollovers. If the result is a negative number, enter a zero here."

So as long as it was a rollover, it shouldn't count as income for FAFSA purposes, and GT made an error. If it was a distribution that you received, they are correct.

iconplaybass

Well at least you are on the right track. You know where the change was made. If GT incorrectly counted that rollover as income, you need to contact them ASAP and have it changed back because all schools will go by the new FAFSA EFC, not just GT. They all must use the same report.

monica1020

It was a rollover, not a distribution.

If so, can I challenge it?