Student Aid Report- An Overview
Student aid report enables you to review or correct the information you filled on FAFSA. This article guides you about when you can receive it and what to look for in SAR.
After applying for the FAFSA, you must expect for the Students Aid Report-SAR. SAR is a report which details about the information you filled during the application process of FAFSA.
It calculates your eligibility for a Federal aid for your tuition with the Expected Family Contribution(EFC) to determine if the family could repay the loan borrowed. This article gives you details about SARmeaning, when to expect it and what to look for in SAR.
What is a Student Aid Report?
Student Aid Report is a report generated from the information you fill on the FAFSA. It calculates the Expected Family Contribution and your eligibility for a federal aid. It also enables you to review and update the information you listed on fafsa.
When do you receive your Student Aid Report?
The SAR can be generated upon how you applied the FAFSA, it could be online medium or by paper work. You could receive SAR within 3 days if you applied through an online medium and up to 7 days via post.
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You should give details of your active email id, and sign in to FAFSA through a FSA ID to get SAR soon.
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For those who applied online and did not sign the FAFSA with a FSA ID, it could take up to 2 weeks to get your SAR
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If you didn't apply through an online medium you could get your SAR via post in 7-10 days.
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In the given circumstances, if you apply for FAFSA without an FSA ID or email address, a hard copy of the form can stretch up to three weeks to be processed and sent to your respective SAR.
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In some cases, you might have accidentally or intentionally provided an invalid or inactive email ID while filing the FAFSA, you will be subject to a delayed SAR.
How to read SAR?
There is some important information in your SAR that you must look for after filing FAFSA:
Expected Family Contribution(EFC):
EFC is calculated as the total family contribution your family is estimated to cover for your tuition. It is calculated based on the financial information you provided while filling the FAFSA. It is not the amount you have to pay for the tuition or the amount you receive as a federal aid.
Verification:
The asterisk you find next to your EFC indicated that it must be verified further and you have been selected for that verification. The SAR will also indicate that you have been selected for verification with the SAR acknowledgement letter. Further you need to produce additional documents to qualify for federal aid.
Data Release Number(DRN):
DRN is a four digit reference number for your application for federal aid. You could get assistance from customer service agent to make any changes you filled on the FAFSA by giving the DRN.
Loan summary:
This is the summary of your outstanding loans on the SAR. You must check for this section on your SAR to be sure about your informtion. You could also view the National Student Loan Data System to check for your loan status and details. You will need your FSA Id to access the loan information and this step is necessary only if you have a federal loan borrowed.
FAFSA changes:
This is the chance given to correcting the information you provided in FAFSA. The last pages such as 5-10 can be corrected . If you applied online, you could correct it online and if you did paperwork to apply for FAFSA you can correct the information in the space provided.
However you cannot correct your financial information or marital status you gave while you filled your FAFSA. But you must sign with your FSA Id after correcting information before you submit it to the federal processor.
Conclusion
In SAR, You must carefully review the information you provided while filing FAFSA,this gives you a chance to review and correct. As the information you provide will be calculated to estimate your EFC and this could affect the federal aid you could get.
Federal aid is always distributed by first come, first served basis and you must be aware about the application and FAFSA deadline to get better aids facilities. You must check timely for updates regarding your application status.
