Students and parents often find the information they provide on the FAFSA does not accurately reflect their ability to provide educational support.
When this happens, students may request a review and update to the FAFSA by submitting a TJC eForm as explained below.
Special circumstances may include, but are not limited to:
- Loss or change of employment
- Loss or change in the amount of child support, or other benefits
- Death, Divorce, or Separation of parents or spouse
- Unusual medical expenses (not covered by insurance) and paid during the year
- One-time taxable income used for life-changing events (e.g. IRA, pension distribution, back-year Social Security payments)
Circumstances that are not considered for a FAFSA update include but are not limited to:
- Standard living expenses (e.g. utilities, credit card payments, children’s allowances, etc.)
- Mortgage payments
- Car payments
- Credit card or other personal debts
- Vacation expenses
- All other discretionary expenses
Please submit the appropriate eForm below to request a special circumstances review.
Special Circumstances also include adjustments to the student’s cost of attendance (COA). When a student’s aid and COA are posted, the COA does not include dependent care, disability-related expenses or other extraordinary expenses that a student may have while attending TJC.
If you wish to request a COA adjustment, please submit the following eForm.
Unusual Circumstances
Many students have unique situations and do not live with their legal parents due to parental abandonment, incarceration, or other extraordinary reasons. The FAFSA requires parental data if the student doesn’t meet the FAFSA definition of an independent student unless the student clicks the unusual circumstances option. If this option is chosen, the following eForm will be required to complete the financial aid process and will be automatically posted to Apache Access on the student’s Financial Aid Dashboard.