| AwardYear: 1997-1998 Edition: PostSecondary Part: 2 - - The application process for financial aid SectionNumber: SectionTitle: Reviewing the Student Aid Report PageNumbers: 31-35 Reviewing the Student Aid Report The student receives a SAR or SAR Information Acknowledgement within four weeks of filing an application. (The student's school may receive this information sooner on an ISIR if the student has authorized release of the information.) The SAR or SAR Information Acknowledgement contains the student's EFC and any comments about the student's application information. 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 that explain whether the 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 that 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 (or SAR Information Acknowledgement) with an official EFC. 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. As noted on page 38 under "Adding a School," a student may call this number also to request changes in the student's address or in the schools (institution codes) to which the SAR is to be sent. The student will need to provide the Personal Identification Number (PIN) from the SAR. The student must review the SAR 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 section titled "Making Changes." For additional information on the Student Aid Report, please refer to A Guide to 1997-98 SARs and ISIRs. 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. 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, 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 1997-98 SARs and ISIRs. A SAR Information Acknowledgement comprises Part 1 only, and allows the student to review the processed information and results. This one-part SAR Information Acknowledgement is a payable eligibility document just like a two-part SAR. A student may take it to another institution and receive SFA funds. 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. 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. (However, note that students are required to submit signed documentation to confirm the necessary corrections. See page 37.) Part 1 Information on NSLDS Part 1 also reports National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) information on the student. This NSLDS Financial Aid History (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 will report data only as reported to that system; sometimes the data is not completely current due to a lag of time in reporting data to NSLDS. Also, the NSLDS page is produced only for students whose financial aid information is found in the database, not for every SAR or ISIR. Dear Colleague Letter GEN-96-13 (July 1996) provides information on NSLDS Financial Aid History data and issues pertaining to use of the data. Action Letter 5 (GEN-96-22) describes "changes and enhancements to the 1997-98 application processing system." For example, new flags have been added to improve the reporting of NSLDS match results and changes to NSLDS data: NSLDS Results; NSLDS Transaction Number; Transaction Receipt Date; and Reprocessing Code. The NSLDS Results Flag will show the result of the match for the student's reported Social Security Number. For example, a value of "1" means that the reported SSN was matched and confirmed with the NSLDS, and that NSLDS data were sent to the CPS and will appear on the SAR and ISIR. A value of "2" means that the student's SSN was found in the NSLDS but the match could not be confirmed using either the name or date of birth. This result will generate comment code #138, informing the student and school that the problem must be resolved before federal student financial aid can be awarded. The NSLDS Transaction Number is updated on the student's SAR or ISIR each time the NSLDS data changes. For example, the student has 3 SAR transactions. On the first SAR transaction, the NSLDS transaction code is "1" since this is the first time that the information is sent through the matches and the NSLDS data is accurate as of the first transaction. If the student makes a correction on the SAR and mails it in, the record will be sent back through the NSLDS match to see if there is a change. If there is no change to the NSLDS data, the NSLDS transaction number remains at number "1." So, even though a school has SAR number 2, the school will know that the NSLDS data is the same as it was on the first SAR. If the SAR is mailed in for a third transaction, it will be sent again through the data match. If the NSLDS data has changed, the NSLDS transaction number will also change. In this example, the new NSLDS transaction number will be "3." The flag for "Transaction Receipt Date" will display the date that the input for each transaction is received by a FAFSA processor or the CPS, and it will also display whether that input is paper or electronic, a subsequent application, or a correction. This date will appear in addition to the "Application Receipt Date," which displays the date that the original (or first) application was received. The Transaction Receipt Date will change for each transaction, but the Application Receipt Date will remain constant. The flag for "Reprocessing Code" is a numeric code that will be used to provide more specific information about system-generated records. If a subset of student records requires reprocessing--for example, there are changes in the formula or maximum EFC, or problems with NSLDS data for certain students, the Reprocessing Reason Code will appear on the reprocessed records along with the System Generated (Sys Gen) = Z code that identifies a reprocessed batch. This code will be numeric and will be assigned and incremented with each reprocessing. The definition for a code will be available from Customer Service and will be announced on the Student Financial Assistance Bulletin Board Service (SFA BBS). Part 2 - Information Review Form/Information Request Form As of 1997-98, Part 2 of the SAR will be on five pages, with codes and instructions listed on the fifth page. Part 2 has been redesigned with special emphasis on adapting it for imaging and scanning technology by using ovals and enlarging response fields, similar to the FAFSA and the now redesigned and streamlined Renewal Application. (The SAR Information Acknowledgment and Part 1 of the SAR will remain unchanged.) Please note that Part 2 of the SAR by itself does not serve as an eligibility document; as mentioned previously, only Part 1 of the SAR--the Information Summary-- serves as an eligibility letter to the student and school. 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 "Write in only new or corrected information." Data elements that have been questioned by the CPS logic 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 or inconsistent and an EFC could not be calculated. In this situation, the student will receive a four-page SAR (a "reject" SAR) with the Information Request Form as Part 2. The student must correct or verify all information identified by an arrow printed in each questioned field on the SAR. Beginning in 1997-98, the student must write a new answer in the boxes or ovals that appear to the right of the arrow to make a correction. To verify that the previous answer (the answer originally provided by the student) is correct, the student must rewrite the same answer in the answer space provided for each questioned data element. (Note that the new design does not include check-off boxes to verify answers.) 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. Both the Information Review Form and the Information Request Form contain 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 if he or she has special circumstances. 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 SAR will indicate that the EFC falls beneath the cutoff for Pell eligibility. The student must still review the SAR and make any necessary corrections on Part 2 of the SAR or through EDE. Pell-ineligible -- The EFC exceeds the Pell eligibility cutoff 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 -- No EFC was calculated, because of missing, incorrect, or questionable information. The student must correct the information using Part 2 of that SAR, as instructed. If an application is signed outside of the processing time frame (if it is signed before January 1, 1997 or received after June 30, 1998), it will be returned unprocessed with a letter of explanation. 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 (by the CPS) for verification. (A code is also provided on the ISIR.) You must check the information the student reported on the FAFSA, 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, selecting other applications for verification in addition to those selected by the CPS. Please refer to The Verification Guide 1997-98 for more information on this process. |