Financial Aid not provided despite demonstrated need

cptofthehouse
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 02:40:07 +0000

FAFSA is the basic form for financial aid applications. It determines your eligibility for federal PELL grant, subsidized student loans, and federal work study jobs. You must fill out FAFSA for your parents to be allowed to take out PLUS(parent loans. Some states also have financial aid programs that use FAFSA as well. There are only a few schools that guarantee to meet full demonstrated need as determined by the FAFSA EFC.

The FAFSA EFC, uses only custodial parent and spouse financial info. It does not ask about primary home market value. Business income is counted as reported on tax forms. For school year 2020, 2018 federal tax forms are used for income and assets as of the date the form is transmitted.

Schools that guarantee to meet full demonstrated need almost always ask for more information and use a different methodology. PROFILE is the form usually used. If your family owns a primary residence, has a family business, has “unusual” assets, owns property, the valuations of all of these entities, as well as possible other things are added to the equation to come up with an institutional EFC which usually is larger than the FAFSA EFC. If there are businesses, properties , etc that need to be evaluated as to value, schools have their own methodologies. If you and your parents do not agree with the institutional EFC, you should find out what the sticking points are and argue your case. It is possible mistakes were made on your part as well as the school’s. There might be misunderstandings as well. You and your parents should understand how the school assessed your need, evaluated your family business and holdings. Any disagreements should be discussed.

It is possible that the school did misunderstand the value of your family assets and earnings. However, bear in mind that just because you and your parents do not agree with the valuations, doesn’t mean the school will change their methodology. If it’s a matter of disagreement, it’s their game, their formulas , their valuations and their money so they can do as they please in terms of defining all of these terms. I’ve known many families who disagree with the market values placed on the assets or how the income is viewed. It can be hair raising when the depreciation and expenses for a business are added back to income. That’s often how it is done. But you and family absolutely should understand how the school views your family situation.