Unemployment and EFC

etobiason
Wed, 20 May 2009 20:21:39 +0000

I went to Rutgers and brought a copy of the “dear colleague letter” NikkiiL linked to and the woman answering questions said that they were participating with this effort and my EFC should be zero. Now, I wasn’t entirely convinced that she was completely versed on this matter as I had to point out the relevant parts of the letter, and I fear upon submitting a circumstances appeal I may get someone there who is unaware of these very recent changes. I also did some more searching for info and came across the below link.

http://www.ilasfaa.org/docs/conferences/2009/presentations/FederalMethodologyChanges.ppt

This is a summation of the current EFC calculation criteria for financial aid administrators to use for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The part that worries me is the raising of the max income from 20k to 30k to be eligible for a zero efc, my 2008 1040 lists $30,061 as my income…is this based on net income or hopefully it means taxable income or am I just reading too much into this? Being in NJ the tuiton aid grant (TAG) is also based off of EFC so should I contact them to inquire if they shall evaluate based on a lower EFC ?

To avoid any problems I think I’m going to hold off on submitting anything further to the financial aid people to avoid any problems before while the kinks are worked out of this new program. Any input would be greatly appreciated.