Professional judgment is used by a Financial Aid Administrator (FAA) to make changes to a Student Aid Report (SAR) because circumstances have changed since the student applied for financial aid. Reasons for considering professional judgment include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- divorce or separation;
- death or disability of wage earner;
- loss of income (income or benefits);
- medical expenses paid; or
- other unusual circumstances.
An FAA has limited authority to make changes to the student's income information due to special circumstances. In cases where an FAA uses professional judgment to make adjustments to the student's cost of attendance or EFC, additional documentation to justify any and all changes made must be collected. Students will be required to provide proof including, but not limited to:
- divorce decree, separation agreement, or statement from person involved in separation;
- death certificate or statement from doctor about disability;
- proof of loss of income or benefit; or
- proof of medical expenses paid or commitment to pay during current year.
If a student applies to two schools and requests consideration for a professional judgment, the documents requested might be different and the outcome may be different based on the school. If the student attends one school early in the year and that school exercises professional judgment and then the student transfers to another school during the same award year, the second school has several options:
- the FAA can have the student request that the first school send copies of documents used to make a professional judgment decision;
- the FAA can opt to exercise their own professional judgment and request the documentation he/she believes is pertinent to the situation; or
- the FAA may decide not to exercise professional judgment at all.
The Application and Verification Guide in the Federal Student Aid Handbook provides more detailed information about Professional Judgment.
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