<p>Good Afternoon! I came across this website during my search for some financial aid answers. It looks like there are some well informed members on this forum, so I’m hoping perhaps someone can give me some insight.</p>
<p>My girlfriend and I are mid-twenty students at a community college, we are both attending for medical career programs. She was selected to be “audited” and submit all of her financial information to the school in the middle of this semester. Long story short, after submitting this information, the college made a change on her SAR report this Friday. We checked it out, and they added $10,000 to line 44j: “Money received or paid on student’s behalf”. We’re not sure if this based on the money she was disbursed remaining from grants/loans/scholarships. Or perhaps based on the year prior, living with her former boyfriend, and financial contributions that would entail as far as bills go.</p>
<p>Currently, when we review her money she will be receiving for the upcoming semester, it only lists her PELL Grant. No stafford loans are listed. Where as my report does include these loans for the upcoming semester.</p>
<p>What I’m trying to understand is what exactly line 44j entails. Can it count the student’s own college loan disbursed money in there? And how exactly does a $10,000 amount in line 44j affect her financial aid for this new award year? We are going to our school’s financial aid office tomorrow of course, but just hoping to have a better idea of her situation before we speak to them. </p>
<p>Thanks for any and all feedback! Much appreciated.</p>
<p>Did anyone else pay some of her expenses? For instance, if she lived with her former boyfriend, was he paying the rent, and other bills, or was she paying a share from her own money? Did she have outside scholarships? Line 44j would be money paid by anybody other than herself or her parents toward her support - whether it was paid to the school, or someone else like her landlord.</p>
<p>From what I understand, it will reduce her need by about 50%, so by about $5,000. If she’s eligible for the Pell Grant, she is probably also eligible for the loans, so they might be added back in - since they only updated the SAR of Friday, they might not have updated the financial aid package yet.</p>
<p>Yeah, she was living with her boyfriend for about 8 months last year. I guess the way the audit worked was it essentially asked her to break down her monthly expenses. It totaled to about $12,000 and she only had about $2,500 in actual income. So, I’m guessing, they figured her $10,000 in other expenses had to be covered through him, or another source, and added it to her FAFSA? </p>
<p>When you say reduce her need by 50%, just 50% of the “gifted money” or 50% of what she would have normally received? Sounds like you’re saying she will receive $5,000 less than normal because she had that $10,000 in support then?</p>
<p>If that is the case, the thing I find interesting is, that was a year ago. She now relies on her federal aid money to cover some living expenses (our college calculates about $8,000 per year for independent students). But by “punishing” her for the upcoming academic year, without the year’s previous financial support, she’s essentially screwed.</p>
<p>Anyhow, thanks for the response! Definitely helpful in getting an idea about this.</p>
<p>I think she may have overestimated her half of the monthly expenses. Add up rent, utilities and food and divide by half and then multiply by 8 months. If she lived with parents the other 4 months, that doesn’t get counted.</p>