Made a mistake on my FAFSA, what do I do?

Question

I filed my renewal FAFSA (08-09 year) on the web yesterday evening and thought I was doing it all right. When I first started it a while ago, I went through it on my own and saved it. I decided to finish the rest of it yesterday and submitted it. When I got my confirmation page, it said that my EFC was 0, so obviously I had done something wrong. I thought I was doing everything right and since I've done it before, I made the mistake of just kind of fudging through it. But now it's already submitted. I tried do something about it where I could undo what I did, but it doesn't seem that way. I tried retrieving a 2008-2009 correction application, but it makes me enter in all of my information as well as create a new password, and when I do, it says application not found. Is this going to give me big problems? Do I wait for them to process it before I can do any corrections? Please help!

Answer 1

Hmm, I did corrections like 5 times. The last time I needed to do corrections I had to wait 3 days. If you really unsure you can just call for support and they will tell you what you need to know.

Answer 2

What did you do exactly? Have you contacted your financial aid person at college to let them know there's been an error on your FASFA form? After the Department of Education goes through your FASFA form they will send you an SAR, I believe that's what it's called. It takes about 5 to 10 days for all of that to happen roughly after the DOE goes through reviews your FASFA.

Now, when you get your SAR, your college will also get a copy of it as well because you made note of where you wanted your financial information to go on your FASFA. I cannot recall the number off hand but they will be receiving the same information. What you need to do is contact your financial advisor again and ask them how to fix your SAR so it is correct. They should be able to walk you through making corrections who and where you need to mail the information to.

A final note, it's always a good idea to have ATTN on the envelope to the person that is getting that information.

I have gone through the financial aid process many times before so I am quite familiar with it. I am ending my college career in a few months with my MBA in Business.

Answer 3

Hold up!

An EFC of 0 does not mean you did something wrong. Many people get that score. *I* got that score. It just means that your family is low income and will get many grants and federal aid before any loan offers, drastically reducing your tuition.

However, if you made a good amount of money (or you're a dependent and your parents do) then there probably is a problem somewhere in your form. In that case follow I suggest following the above suggestions because I haven't encountered that problem.

Answer 4

A zero is a perfectly normal score on the FAFSA.  It does not hurt to talk to your financial aid office about your application though.  They can look at it and tell you if everything looks relatively normal with it.  

With a zero EFC you should be eligible for the max in Pell grant funding and may benefit from other sources of grant money such as SEOG or state funded aid.  You will find this out when the financial aid office issues you an award letter.