Financial Aid emergency question

swimcatsmom
Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:09:41 +0000

Although there is no way to show your situation on FAFSA you can ask for a special circumstances adjustment from the school to reflect the situation. This is something they could make an adjustment for. But this is purely at the discretion of the financial aid officer at each school and would depend on their policies. If they do make an adjustment it would reduce your EFC (it is not a $ for $ adjustment - they go in and reduce income, if they agree to a adjustment, then the numbers are run through a formula again producing a new EFC). Whether it would reduce it enough to make you eligible for aid depends on how high it is.

As far as federal grant aid is concerned the EFC must be very low to be eligible, <4617 for 2009-2010 for the Pell grant. Other than that federal aid is mainly loans. You do have to file FAFSA to be eligible for the Stafford loan. It is impossible to get it otherwise. You can file FAFSA after January 1st and list the schools your child is applying to, you don’t have to wait util after they get accepted.