I received an estimate of how much aid i will receive. However, the school needed a verification worksheet. Why do they need the worksheet if all my info is already on the FAFSA??? Also, did the estimate they gave me means thats how much aid i could receive? Meaning they just want to verify my info? But i’ll still receive the money they estimated right???
The US Department of Education randomly selects 30% of all FAFSA forms every year for verification. The fact that yours was selected does not mean that they doubt the information that you provided - however, when your application is chosen, you must respond to the Department’s request for documentation of some of the information you provided on your FAFSA.
The most important of these verification matters is income verification. The worksheet that you received explains exactly what forms of documentation you and your parents must submit.
Keep in mind that all of the information you filled in on the FAFSA was "self-reported" - they asked you to refer to various tax forms (for example), but they didn’t require you to document any of your figures. You can imagine, then, that some people are tempted to lie, particularly when they realize that the income they report is going to play a major role in determining how much financial aid they qualify for.
Verification is the Department’s way of keeping applicants honest.
If the documentation that you provide supports the information you submitted on your FAFSA, you will receive exactly the amount of financial aid that you were offered by your financial aid office. However, if you can not properly document some of your responses, this may result in a lower award.
If an applicant’s FAFSA answers are way out of line with reality, that applicant may be barred from receiving aid of any kind. (The government isn’t all that anxious to help applicants who start out by trying to scam them).
I hope that helped - but don’t worry - if your answers were accurate, you shouldn’t have any problem satisfying the verification requirements. Good luck!