Hi, I’m having trouble finding an answer to this question despite scouring the web.
My son is in college and getting married June 23 with at least another year to go. I have submitted the FAFSA for next year and I would like to update his FAFSA after he gets married, but before June 30, not for the purposes of aid from the university for next year, but for Pell, FSEOG, and NYS TAP awards. I can’t seem to find any way to do this.
I had to file FAFSA before June 30 to meet an earlier university deadline.
The university responded that the FAFSA is a “‘snapshot’ of the family’s financial situation as of that date”. But if I can update the FAFSA, can’t I then apply for these Federal and State grants, independent of the University? This is a significant amount of money and I’m hoping to figure out how to do this.
You cannot update the FAFSA once it is filed for that year. However, the school can do a ‘professional review’ and consider new factors (such as getting married) and make awards like a Pell grant (don’t know about state grants), SEOG, subsidized loans.
There are a couple considerations. First of all, this is the regulation: At your discretion you [note: you refers to the school] may update either dependency status or family size, even if the update is due to a change in the student’s marital status, if you deem it necessary to address an inequity or to reflect more accurately the student’s ability to pay. Such a decision must be on a case-by-case basis, and you must document your reasons for it. You must also update all other pertinent information, such as spousal income and taxes paid, to be consistent with the new marital status. What this means is:
•The ability to update the FAFSA to married lies exclusively with the school.
•The college can, but not necessarily will, update the FAFSA to married.
•The decision whether to update to married is made by the school based on its assessment of whether the fact that the student got married resulted in a change to the student’s financial situation/ability to pay that can (and must) be documented.
•None of us can tell you if the school will approve the request and use professional judgment to update the marital status to married. You will need to ask the school.
•If the school chooses to update the marital status, the spouse will need to submit financial documents to the school.
•Whether the state grant can be requested based on a professional judgment marital status approval is something you must ask the state grant office.
•If the state grant office says they will allow it based on the school decision, and if the state grant has a cutoff date that is a week after the wedding, that may be a problem. This is something you must ask the state grant office.