<p>what the heck? i updated my fafsa with a new number for my parent’s adjusted gross income, which was 4K less than what we expected</p>
<p>what was new was that this time, the website asked more questions regarding my school’s curriculum plan and whether or not i passed two more or APs in high school</p>
<p>i can’t understand why there’s a sudden change and will the college that i go to take this into account or will my financial aid award still be the same despite this change in efc?</p>
<p>the new questions about APs and stuff is for this new federal grant called the Academic Competitiveness Grant. basically if you took a rigorous HS ciricculum (good scores on APs, IBs), you qualify for this grant.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/NewPrograms.jsp[/url]”>http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/NewPrograms.jsp</a></p>
<p>not sure about the EFC changing from 23k down to 4k though…unless you mean you lowered it 4k…</p>
<p>If your EFC is 23K, you likely won’t quality for the Academic Competitiveness Grant. It’s only available for students who quality for the Pell Grant. Pretty restrictive income criteria, I believe.</p>
<p>Hmmm.</p>
<p>If your EFC really dropped from 23K to 4K after a 4K drop in AGI, and you also got asked the new FAFSA questions about the AP’s, the only thing that might explain the circumstances is:</p>
<p>Your parent’s initial AGI was just over 50K, and they had significant reportable assets that accounted for much of the 23K EFC. Reducing the AGI by 4K brought the AGI just under 50K, which qualified them for the Simplified Needs Test (can they file short form taxes?), where their assets aren’t counted. After their assets are excluded from the formula, the EFC drops to about 4K, which ALSO potentially qualifies you for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (as jtoc mentioned above), hence the additional questions about AP’s.</p>
<p>If that’s what happened, nice going. And if you do qualify for the ACG on top of having a huge decrease in EFC, doubly nice going.</p>
<p>Good example of the importance of knowing how the financial aid formulas work and what the thresholds and allowances are.</p>
<p>i did qualify for the program and my parents only make 46K combined so alot of the EFC were based on assets that they had…will the college that i attend take this into account?</p>
<p>cuz…i only got a half-ride to a private school and i had to turn them down yesterday and after that, i found out that my efc changed dramatically</p>
<p>and this private school covered 100% financial need so what happens now? can i appeal to them and tell them this new information?</p>
<p>Call them right away tomorrow!!! I can’t speak for the college, but there is an excellent chance that they will work with you to take care of your situation.</p>
<p>thank you, i will definetly call them tomorrow but i think that one of the admissions officer is kind of mad at me (well, who wouldn’t be because i am getting in the way of a waitlisted student who probably would like to be accepted)</p>
<p>well, here’s my college situation as of now</p>
<ol>
<li>already submitted my SIR to a state school because of price ( UC Irvine)</li>
<li>was accepted from a school that i was waitlisted at (Occidental) and now they’re going through my financial aid award as well and i have until next Monday, May 7th to decide before they go through their 2nd batch of waitlisted students</li>
<li>I was also waitlisted at Wellesley but they won’t let me know if i am accepted 2 or 3 weeks from now and by that time, i will already have to tell oxy if i will be attending</li>
<li>still waiting to see if i got off the University of Virginia waitlist </li>
</ol>
<p>and the college that gave me 50% financial aid was Brandeis, the admissions officer extended my SIR deadline to 5/2 (yesterday) and it wasn’t until i decided not to go because of money issues that i found out that my efc changed</p>
<p>what to do, what to do…</p>
<p>How can your EFC have declined that much if it was mostly based on assets The stock market hasn’t crashed, real estate is down some places but few crashes. Did they lose assets?</p>
<p>See post #4 for explanation, suze. Financial aid is a tricky business!</p>
<p>Haberdashery, I feel so bad for you. I know how stressed my daughter was while making her decision … and how great she felt when she did … I think she’d go crazy if things suddenly changed! You have my sympathy. Don’t feel bad about asking Brandeis to look again. This is really important to you. The most they can say is no, but you will never know unless you ask. Good luck.</p>
<p>“How can your EFC have declined that much if it was mostly based on assets…”</p>
<p>Under certain circumstances, when the parent’s AGI is below 50K, assets aren’t considered. So they still have the (significant) assets, but there’s no contribution to the EFC from parental assets.</p>
<p>Wow, I should have had my parents quit their jobs?</p>
<p>Does this mean someone with millions who doesn’t have jobs would get aid?</p>
<p>
Probably not because someone with millions would probably have it invested and be getting an income from it.</p>
<p>And someone with millions probably won’t be able to file short form (a requirement for Simplified Means Test).</p>
<p>a response to sblake, post #4</p>
<p>that’s exactly what happened, i overestimated my parents’ agi to be a bit over 50K, yet after they filed their taxes, it was under 50k and alot of the 23K efc was due to our family’s assets</p>
<p>this makes me feel so much better because i have to pay for my own college tuition :)</p>