The impact of quality assurance procedures on the correct award of Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOGs) for 1979-1980 was assessed, and a model for detecting error-prone applications early in processing was developed. The Bureau of Student Financial Aid introduced new comments into the edit system in 1979 and expanded the pre-established criteria (PEC) used to select students for validation. Study objectives were to assess: the impact of the processing system edits on applicant behavior; the adequacy of the PEC as effective indicators of misreporting; and the impact of validation effort on the correct award of BEOGs. In analyzing the processing system edits, the focus was the frequency and type of corrections to key application items, and the ability of applicants to quickly meet the demands of the processing system and receive an eligibility determination. To determine the adequacy of PEC as indicators of misreporting, a sample of individuals selected for validation was compared with a randomly-selected sample. In assessing the impact of validation edits, a sample of validation applicants was compared with a similar sample of non-validation applicants. An error-prone model related to the validation system was also developed and compared with the existing PEC. (SW)