Financial Aid and Scholarships

When completing the FAFSA, students may be selected for a process called “Verification” by the U.S. Department of Education.  This process requires Tooele Tech to verify the information provided on your FAFSA with financial documents you must provide to our office.  The required documents will be requested once Tooele Tech receives your FAFSA and may include, but are not limited to, a signed copy of your federal tax return transcript(s) and the Verification Worksheet.  If you are a dependent student, you will also be required to submit a copy of your parents’ signed federal tax return transcript(s).  You may be asked to submit other documents as needed to complete the verification process.

Your Student Aid Report (SAR) will inform you if you are selected for verification.  If there are discrepancies between the information provided on the FAFSA and your financial documents, you will need to make electronic corrections to your FAFSA data.  Important note:  Tooele Tech will not proceed with your aid application until all required documents are returned and the verification process is complete.  Any correction(s) made to your FAFSA may cause changes to your financial aid account including award amounts.

Tooele Tech is required by the Department of Education to complete the verification process for any student selected.   You cannot receive any federal financial aid until the process is complete.  Please assist us in completing this process as soon as possible so that your financial aid will not be delayed.

Tooele Tech works closely with several government agencies and private organizations to help individuals obtain the training they need to qualify for employment. Some of those organizations include the Department of Workforce Services (DWS), Vocational Rehabilitation, Deseret Industries, and the WIOA Youth Program. You may wish to work with one or more of these organizations directly as you arrange to finance your training program at Tooele Tech. Contact Student Services for more information.

Professional Judgment refers to the school’s authority to make adjustments, on a case-by-case basis, to information reported on the FAFSA, so that the Department of Education can recalculate the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is the number that the school uses to determine if a student is eligible for need- based financial aid.

Please Note: The school does not have the authority to make direct adjustments to the EFC or to the formula used to calculate the EFC, just data elements on the FAFSA which may change the EFC.

The professional judgment process is an extensive process that requires a thorough review by the Financial Aid Coordinator to determine what, if any changes, may be appropriate based on your FAFSA application. It is a time-intensive process that includes the following steps:

• If a Professional Judgment is requested, the student will be institutionally selected for Verification (if not previously selected). Be aware that during the Verification process, corrections to your FAFSA may be required which can result in a change to a student’s aid eligibility.
• The file will then be reviewed to determine if all required documentation has been submitted. If additional documentation is required, the student will be notified by email.
• The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will determine if a student’s Professional Judgment request meets the criteria to make data element changes to their FAFSA.
• If approved, appropriate changes will be made to the student’s FAFSA and submitted to the Department of Education. The Department of Education will then recalculate the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and the student’s eligibility for need-based aid. The student will be notified by email.
• If denied, the student will be notified by email.

In many cases, an adjustment does not increase the student’s eligibility for grants or the total amount of aid awarded. Be aware that if a student receives a Federal Pell Grant, it may be reduced or lost because it is based on the original EFC.

Special circumstances are anything that differentiates the family’s finances from those of other families. Below are examples to include, but are not limited to, reasons to submit a professional judgment request:

• Changes in a family’s reported income
• Death or disability of a wage earner
• Separation/divorce of the student’s parents
• Unusually high childcare or dependent care expenses
• Changes to dependency status
• Unusually high medical or dental expenses
• Parent(s) enrolled in college at least half-time in a degree seeking program