Special Financial Conditions

As explained in How Awards Are Determined, we calculate your Cost of Attendance Budget and financial need based on the data you report on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). We use your budget to determine your financial need and the total aid that you can receive from all aid programs (including student loans). We use your financial need and the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from your FAFSA to determine your eligibility for need-based aid programs.

The standard FAFSA application process accurately collects most of the data we need, but if you have any of the special situations outlined below, you must submit additional information to request adjustments to your cost of attendance budget and/or your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

There are three main types of adjustments:

• day care or elementary / secondary tuition expenses
• special conditions (changes in your financial situation that could not be reported on your FAFSA)
• federal tax return IRA or pension rollovers

For all adjustments, visit our FAFSA page to review which tax year your FAFSA used.  Most adjustments are relative to the data from that FAFSA tax year.

Most approved adjustments will increase your financial need by decreasing your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Because aid funds are limited, even if your financial need increases, it may not increase enough for you to become eligible to receive additional aid. 

Day Care or Elementary/Secondary Tuition Form

To request adjustments for day care or private elementary and secondary tuition expenses, please visit Forms & Online Services, and submit the Day Care or Elementary / Secondary Tuition (PDF) form.   

• For dependent students, the expenses must be for your younger brother or sister, and the approved expenses can help to reduce your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
• For independent students, the expenses must be for your dependent child, and the approved expenses can increase your Cost of Attendance, which will increase your need but will not change your EFC.

Special Conditions Form

If you experienced any of the following changes, please visit Forms & Online Services, and submit the Special Conditions Form (PDF).

• death of a dependent student’s parent or a student’s spouse if the financial data reported on the FAFSA included the deceased parent or spouse’s income
• divorce or separation after the FAFSA was submitted
• parent or spouse of student suffered permanent and total disability after January 1 of the prior academic year
• An independent student, student spouse, or the parents of a dependent student will experience a significant reduction in annual income since your FAFSA tax year because of job loss or reduction in pay/hours
• Loss of one-time income source received since your FAFSA tax year
• Loss/reduction of untaxed income received since your FAFSA tax year (i.e. child support ended)
• Parent/spouse/student reported unusually high medical expense deductions on your FAFSA tax year or the following tax year.

IRA/Pension Investment Rollovers

The FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval Tool works well for most aid applicants, but unfortunately, it uploads incorrect data if you had IRA distribution or pension rollovers on your federal tax return. The FAFSA instructions tell you to exclude the untaxed portion of IRA or pension rollovers, but the FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval Tool incorrectly includes the portion that should be excluded.

If you met all three conditions below, then you must correct your rollover data error by submitting a TU Verification Worksheet.

• TU has not already asked you to submit a TU verification worksheet
• your federal tax return included an IRA distribution or pension entry marked as a rollover on your 1040 (lines 15 or 16) or 1040A (lines 11 or 12)
• you used the FAFSA’s IRS Data Retrieval Tool and did not subsequently correct your rollover amounts

Follow the standard instructions on your worksheet. Students who were required to list parent data on their FAFSA, must submit the Dependent Student version.  Students who were not required to provide any parent data, must use the Independent Student version.  Both worksheets are available here.