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<p>No, that’s not correct. (Do you know what they say about people who assume? Maybe instead of telling me what you think happened you could ask questions first. That’s what people usually do if they actually want to learn things.)</p>
<p>I entered a value for the business. I followed instructions. I calculated what I thought to be the current fair market value of the business equipment I owned, then I looked at my receivables and I added those numbers together. That came out to some figure that was less than $5000, I don’t remember what. But I usually don’t have more than about $3000 receivables at any given time (money I have billed to clients but not yet been paid). </p>
<p>The college went in and changed that figure from $5000 to $35000, or thereabouts. </p>
<p>The next year I did the same thing, and they did the same thing again. Year #1 I didn’t realize what they had done, year #2 I called them up to debate the point. That’s when they explained their position.</p>
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<p>They didn’t change the formula. They left that the same.</p>
<p>They didn’t change the tables. They left those the same.</p>
<p>They didn’t change the cost of attendance. They left that the same.</p>
<p>They changed the value of two “specific data elements used in the calculation”. I told you about one. I didn’t notice the other until I was pulling up the docs. It happened that back in 2006 I was still supposed to provide a value for my business – the law didn’t change to exempt small businesses until the following year, 2007 – and I entered a value of roughly $1000 on the FAFSA in the appropriate field. My d’s college changed that to -0-. I did not ask for that, I did not even know it was done until today. That would have resulted in a net decrease of roughly $56 on my overall EFC. But technically, that is a 4th instance of PJ being exercised by a college all by itself, without a request from the parent.</p>