The first step many college students take on the road to a diploma is filling out the FAFSA form.
FAFSA stands for "free application for federal aid." It is the form students fill out in order to apply for financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office for post-secondary education. This assistance comes in the forms of grants and loans. The application process requests a lot of detailed financial information. For potential students who are considered dependents, parents are required to answer and provide financial documentation. Occasionally, the Department of Education will require more information and verification from the applicant. This is called verification.
Verification Selection
Approximately one-third of all FAFSA applications are chosen for verification by either the Department of Education or by the school the applicant is applying to. Some of the reasons an application is chosen for verification include being chosen randomly, the application submitted was incomplete, some of the information provided was estimated or some of the information provided is inconsistent. If the applicant is applying as a dependent, the verification is labeled "Dep Verif" for identification purposes.
Documentation
If selected for verification, the applicant should contact the financial aid office of the school she is applying to. It can take up to 45 days to process a verification and no financial aid funds will be dispersed until the process is completed. It is important to provide all requested documentation; however, the applicant should not turn in any documentation that has not been requested.
Verification
The financial aid officer in charge of the verification will check how the information reported on the application compares to the documentation that is turned in. Some of the information verified is how many people are living in the household, how many are attending college, what is the total household income, including child support, and all federal and state tax information.
Financial Aid
If the financial aid officer finds any disparity between what is on the application and what is in the documents provided, the corrections must be made to the application. These corrections can sometimes change how much aid an applicant is eligible for. Not only does the verification process help prevent students from receiving funds they aren't eligible for, but it also ensures that qualified students receive all the aid they're entitled to.
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