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After filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), either on paper or electronically, students will receive an electronic or paper output document depending on the type of FAFSA filed and whether the applicant's e-mail address was provided on the FAFSA. Output documents are referred to as either a Student Aid Report (SAR) or a SAR Acknowledgement.
The SAR summarizes the data that was provided on the paper FAFSA. The primary purpose of the SAR is to report the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). A formula, called Federal Methodology, is used to determine the EFC. The SAR can be used by the school and allows for updates and/or corrections to the original data provided by the student and family. The SAR Acknowledgement provides a summary of the processing result of applications entered electronically by the school or input via FAFSA on the Web and no e-mail address was provided. The SAR Acknowledgement is also an eligibility document and provides the EFC number but it cannot be used to make corrections like the SAR. Corrections to an application entered electronically must be made by the student via Corrections on the Web or by the school via FAA Access to the CPS.
The student does not need to take or send the SAR or SAR Acknowledgement to a postsecondary school that already received the student’s EFC and FAFSA information electronically via the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). The postsecondary school must receive the student’s information in order for the student to receive federal financial aid at that school.
Unless the student’s FAFSA has been rejected, the EFC is printed in the upper right corner of the front page of the SAR/SAR Acknowledgement. In addition, there is a section for the financial aid administrator’s use and a section of summary data from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). If the student has not had any previous federal student aid, this section will be blank.
New in 2009-10
The SAR and SAR Acknowledgement have been redesigned to incorporate data element changes made to the 2009-10 FAFSA.
- The SAR will be printed on green paper;
- Tax line item numbers updated;
- The length of both output documents has increased and reorganized to follow the order of questions on the paper FAFSA;
- The first five digits of the SSN will be masked if match with the Social Security Administration (SSA) is confirmed. If match is not confirmed by the SSA, the full SSN will be printed so the number can be reviewed by the applicant;
- The question about the TEACH Loan information is added to the NDLDS Financial Aid History information;
- TEACH Grant fact sheet no longer mailed; and
- A special circumstances flag prints in FAA Information section.
Viewing SAR Information Online
Once the FAFSA is processed, the applicant will receive an e-mail Notification of SAR Processing with instructions on how to access an electronic SAR (e-SAR). Students with PINs can go to the FAFSA on the Web site and click on "Student Access" to view SAR information. "Student Access" is available regardless of whether the student applied electronically or provided an e-mail address.
A link to "Student Access" is sent instead of a SAR when a student supplies a valid e-mail address on the FAFSA. Unlike the link to the PIN, which is accessible only once, the link to the e-SAR remains active for repeated access. The e-SAR shows the same information the paper SAR does. The student will be able to print a copy of the e-SAR for reference.
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