Income Adjustment Appeal
Income Adjustment Appeal
Income Adjustment Appeal
Appeal Overview
The FAFSA uses your family’s annual income from almost two years ago to project how much your family can afford to contribute to your expenses while you attend college. This projection is based on the assumption that family income is usually stable over the course of time. While the FAFSA form does not give the student the opportunity to explain a circumstance that could affect his or her ability to pay for college; federal law allows authorized officials in our office to make certain adjustments to your income data so that it accurately reflects your family’s situation. These types of adjustments are made in accordance with our Professional Judgment Policy on a case-by-case basis.
If your family has experienced one or more of the following situations, you may qualify for an adjustment to the information on your FAFSA. Making these types of adjustments may result in increased eligibility for federal and state need-based aid. This appeal will not result in increased Rowan merit-based scholarship aid.
- Loss of income due to unemployment, disability, or retirement
- Termination of benefits or income such as child support, alimony, SS Bens
- One-time occurrence of income such as a debt cancellation, an inheritance, or hardship IRA withdrawals
- Exceptional medical and/or dental expenses incurred, not paid by insurance
- Divorce or separation that occurred after that FAFSA was filed
- Death of a parent or spouse that occurred after the FAFSA was filed
- Childcare or secondary school tuition expenses
Appeal Guidelines
You must clearly demonstrate a change in the family’s financial situation occurred either during the tax year used on the FAFSA or later. Our office will use the information provided to determine if your appeal could make an impact to your financial aid award. Submission of this appeal does not guarantee an increase in aid. We are required to make any corrections to data that may have been incorrectly reported on the FAFSA. Consequently, this review could negatively impact your eligibility, resulting in a loss/reduction of your current financial aid. Please review the information on your FAFSA application for accuracy before submitting an appeal. If the student’s FAFSA is selected for federal verification, that process must be completed before this appeal can be considered.
What happens next?
We will review the information you submitted. If we need additional information, the request will be posted in the online system and you will receive an email and/or text notifying you of the status. Once we have everything necessary, we will make appropriate adjustments to data on your FAFSA. You will receive an email from the FAFSA processing center when we do this. PLEASE do not make any changes to this data. Doing so will cause major delays in your aid processing. Once we receive the adjusted FAFSA processing results, we will adjust your financial aid package. You will receive an email to review and accept your financial aid on your self-service portal.
How Long Will This Take?
Our online document collection and appeal platform allows us to respond quickly. Appeals are reviewed in order of the date received. That said, the actual adjustment of income data, reprocessing of the FAFSA, and subsequent adjusting of aid can take a few weeks. The key to speeding up this process is to watch for status updates, check your email, and respond quickly to requests for additional information.
Ready to submit your appeal?
You will be prompted to log in with your Rowan network credentials. If you are a first-time user, you will be asked to confirm your demographic information.
If you are an incoming first-year student and do not have Rowan network credentials, please make an appointment through your admissions portal to speak with a financial aid counselor who can assist you further.
Once in the system, click on “Request” at the top, right corner of the page then select "Professional Judgment: Special Circumstance EFC/SAI Appeal." If multiple award years are open, please pay special attention to the award year for which you are submitting an appeal.
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