A Breakdown Of The Student Aid Report

Overlay text "SAR" against a yellow paper with lines to separate the letters.The SAR or Student Aid Report is a detailed document full of abbreviations and numbers. Making sense of it all can be challenging, especially for those who are seeing one for the first time.

This short breakdown aims to simplify this document so you can better understand the SAR.

EFC

EFC stands for Estimated Family Contribution and refers to the amount that your family is believed to be able to contribute towards your cost of college. It is calculated based on the financial information you provided while filling the FAFSA.

DRN

DRN is the Data Release Number. You will need to use this number if you need to provide a change of address or if you want to submit your SAR to colleges not originally included in your FAFSA.

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Verification

Not all SARs are marked for verification. If yours is, it means before you can be offered federal aid, you need to provide additional financial documentation to verify certain discrepancies in your application.

FAFSA Changes

The last few pages of the SAR contain information you provided on the FAFSA. You must go through all of these pages thoroughly and make sure all information is accurate. If you spot any errors or if your financial situation has changes since you submitted the FAFSA, you can make the changes in the provided space. It is best to do this as early as possible.

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