| AwardYear: 1996-1997 Edition: PostSecondary Part: 2 - - The application process for financial aid SectionNumber: SectionTitle: Reviewing the Student Aid Report PageNumbers: 34-38 The SAR comes in two parts, with each part serving a different purpose; if a student has applied through EDE, however, the SAR comes in one part as a SAR Information Acknowledgement. A student should follow the instructions on the SAR which states if this form is to be submitted to the school(s) the student is planning to attend. The student does not need to take the SAR to a school he or she listed which participates in EDE, since these schools already will have received the student's EFC and application information electronically from the CPS. These schools may award aid based on this data without receiving the printed SAR from the student. To pay a Federal Pell Grant to a student, the school must have either a valid ISIR or valid SAR for that student. To pay other federal student aid, the institution must have either an ISIR or SAR with an official EFC. PART 1 - INFORMATION SUMMARY Part 1 of the SAR is the Information Summary. This part serves as an ELIGIBILITY LETTER TO THE STUDENT AND SCHOOL. The EFC is printed on the front (at the upper right) along with an explanation of the calculation and instructions for the student. A summary of the student's information is printed on the back of Part 1. The Statement of Educational Purpose and the Statement on Overpayments and Defaults have been moved to the FAFSA, though they were included in Part 1 in previous years (as was the Statement of Updated Information, which students are no longer required to sign as of the 1995-96 award year). The Department has determined that both statements can be signed as part of the initial application process. The Statement of Selective Service Registration Status is not printed on either the FAFSA or the SAR, since it is no longer required. Part 1 has a separate section titled "FAA Information." This space is used to provide a coded summary of information about the application and to provide the EFC. Additional information for the financial aid administrator (FAA), such as the results of data matches, is also provided in this section. Changes to the "FAA Information" section are explained in A Guide to 1996-97 SARs and ISIRs. Part 1 also reports National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) information on the student. This NSLDS Information Summary Page (on both the SAR and the ISIR) has been revised to provide student financial aid history. (It therefore provides most of the information required to replace financial aid transcripts.) The page will provide information on overpayments and defaulted loans, and also on a student's most recent loans and aggregate loan amounts for all applicable loan programs. The NSLDS page is produced only for students whose financial aid information is found in the database, not for every SAR or ISIR. If the NSLDS match is completed but no student data are present, a new comment #140 is generated. The school can thus assume that the student has no financial aid history. If the match is partial--that is, if a student's SSN matches a record in the NSLDS database, but the student's name does not match--a new comment 138 is generated. In this situation, the loan history in the database does not appear on the student's SAR or ISIR (identification was not complete), but the comment alerts the financial aid administrator that some financial aid history is associated with that student's SSN. Students who transmitted electronic applications or corrections through their schools using EDE receive a new, noncorrectable SAR Information Acknowledgement from the CPS. This acknowledgement comprises Part 1 only, and allows the student to review the processed information and results. Institutions that transmit applications or corrections to the CPS electronically are no longer required to provide printed copies of ISIRs to these students for review. This one-part SAR is an eligibility document for the Student Financial Assistance (SFA) Programs just like a two-part SAR. A student may take it to another institution and receive SFA funds just as in the case of a two-part SAR. Please note that the SAR Information Acknowledgement may not be used to submit corrected data. If corrections are needed, they must be made through EDE or a duplicate SAR can be requested and used for a paper correction. PART 2 - INFORMATION REVIEW FORM/INFORMATION REQUEST FORM The student uses the "Information Review Form" to make corrections, if necessary, and to update certain items if they have been changed since the FAFSA was completed and submitted. Part 2 lists the student's information under the "You told us" column, with space, if needed, for the student to correct the information under the column headed "The correct answer is." Data elements that are questioned are highlighted in bold type in Part 2. Parental data fields are printed on all SARs. These fields are shaded to distinguish parental data from the student's data. If the student does not provide parental data, the parental data fields are blank. If the student provides parental data on the original application, the data will be on the SAR and ISIR even if the student is independent, and the information will be carried forward on all subsequent transactions. The "Information Request Form," rather than the Review Form, is sent when information provided by the student was incomplete and an EFC could not be calculated. This form provides space for the student to confirm data and provide new data. The Information Request Form MUST be completed correctly and returned to the FAFSA processor for the student to receive federal student aid. Corrections to the SAR information may also be made electronically through the EDE system. Part 2 of the Information Review Form/Information Request Form also contains helpful hints on reviewing the SAR and a "For Your Information" section. The "For Your Information" section tells the student the approximate time needed to review and complete the SAR, informs the student that, if he or she is convicted of drug distribution or possession, his or her eligibility for Title IV student financial aid is subject to suspension or termination, and instructs the student what to do in case of special circumstances. PART 3 - FEDERAL PELL GRANT PAYMENT VOUCHER Please note that, as stated in Action Letter GEN-95-10 (A Guide to 95-96 SARs and ISIRs), Part 3 of the SAR has been eliminated. This was the paper Payment Voucher. As noted on page 23 of this part, beginning in 1996-97 all institutions are required when making Pell Grant awards to use an automated method of payment: the electronic payment system (EDE), the Recipient Data Exchange (RDE), or the Floppy Disk Data Exchange. These methods are described briefly in the chart "Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) Services" at the end of the "How to Apply" section of Part 2. TYPES OF STUDENT AID REPORTS There are several different types of SARs depending on whether the student is eligible or ineligible for a Federal Pell Grant and whether the student's information is consistent. PELL-ELIGIBLE -- The EFC falls beneath the cut-off for Pell eligibility. If the student has a Pell-eligible EFC, the student will receive notification of this on the SAR. However, the student still needs to make any necessary corrections on Part 2 or through EDE. PELL-INELIGIBLE -- The EFC exceeds the Pell eligibility cut-off or the student reported that he or she had a bachelor's degree, was a graduate/professional student, or both. In this case, the EFC can still be used to determine the student's eligibility for other aid. If corrections are necessary, they can be made by using Part 2 of the SAR or by using EDE. Please refer to "Mastering the School Use Only" box later in this part for more information on making corrections and on professional judgment adjustments. REJECTED -- Before an EFC can be calculated, the student must either (1) provide missing information or (2) correct or confirm information that is questioned. If the student receives a rejected SAR (a SAR with no EFC), the student must correct the information using Part 2 of that SAR. The comments on Part 1 of the SAR will tell the student how to proceed. Please note that the one-page "void" SAR was eliminated in the 1995-96 academic year. This change has, in turn, nearly eliminated the correction FAFSA because one of its purposes was to provide instructions to students whose applications were rejected for incomplete information. Also as of 1995-96, the conditions for which a student's application were considered "void" are now considered "rejects"--except for one: if an application is signed outside of the processing deadlines (if it is signed before January 1, 1996 or received after June 30, 1997), it will be returned unprocessed with a letter of explanation. As noted on page 26, if a student does not submit a signature page within 21 calendar days after he or she transmits the FAFSA using FAFSA Express, the CPS will print and mail a rejected SAR (one without an EFC) to the student. The SAR must then be signed and returned to the FAFSA processor. To request a duplicate SAR, the student should call the FEDERAL STUDENT AID INFORMATION CENTER AT 1-319-337-5665. This is a toll call. The student must provide his or her name, SSN, and date of birth. The Information Center does not change an address over the telephone in order to send a duplicate SAR to a correct address. A request for a change in address must be made in writing (see APPENDIX A). If the student's information has minor inconsistencies, the CPS may be able to make ASSUMPTIONS to calculate an official EFC. In this case, the CPS sends the student Parts 1 and 2 of the SAR; the inconsistent information is highlighted on Part 2. The student must review this information carefully for errors before submitting the SAR to the financial aid office. If the SAR contains incorrect information or certain items that need to be updated, the student may have to make changes. We discuss these changes in the next section. Of course, there is another possibility that we haven't mentioned: the perfect SAR or ISIR, on which all the information is consistent and accurate on the first transaction. Hopefully, most of the SARs and ISIRs that you receive are in this category. VERIFICATION The effectiveness of the federal student financial aid programs depends, in large part, on the ACCURACY OF THE DATA REPORTED BY STUDENTS. It directly affects the eligibility of millions of applicants for these programs. Because of this, schools must verify information provided by students selected by the CPS, following the procedures established by regulations. The CPS prints an asterisk next to the EFC on the SAR to identify students who have been selected for verification. A school's financial aid administrator must check the information the student reported on the financial aid application, usually by requesting a copy of the signed tax returns filed by the student and, if applicable, the student's parent(s) or spouse. Many schools conduct their own form of verification; they may select other applications for verification in addition to those selected by the CPS. Please refer to The Verification Guide 1996-97 for more information on this process. Also, please note that verification worksheets will no longer be mailed with SARs. Attached to Action Letter #6 of December 1995 are verification worksheets (Dependent and Independent) that schools may copy and use if they wish. Worksheets can also be printed and customized using the EDExpress software and, as in the past, schools may create and customize their own verification forms. |