College financial aid FAFSA next Jan 1. What will they ask for?

[floridafam]

What information should we expect to be asked for when completing financial aid forms ?

Tax returns, retirement accounts, what else?

Will they ask for bank statements for the year?

My husband just increased his 401k contributions. Was this a bad idea?

Thanks for any and all advice you can provide.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

I believe they ask about the children's bank accounts, your bank accounts, investments. Just about everything. I stopped filling it out, as our contribution was near equal to tuition and it was a lot of work. I found this link. It seems to cover more than the few items I mentioned above.

http://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/306-what-you-need-on-hand-to-complete-the-fafsa

 

[tvguy]

Basically the same information you need for a tax return.

Retirement contributions have no impact on FAFSA because they will require you to add back in any 401k or IRA contributions into your adjusted gross income, that is one big difference from your tax return. Only exception is if your husband is very very near full Social Security retirement age, not sure the exact age off the top of my head. They consider retirement savings to be less important than paying for a child's college education.

If your child is male, they will ask if he has registered for the Selective Service, and if not, they will sign him up because they require it.

 

[floridafam]

Do you know if they need bank statements for the year or just balances on Jan 1?

 

[tvguy]

Do you know if they need bank statements for the year or just balances on Jan 1?

Just for January 1.

Also, they will ask if your child has been convicted of any crime involving drugs. Such a conviction can make you ineligible for funding.

And the most important thing is, in the world of college financial aid, a loan is considered no different than a grant or a scholarship. Be prepared to pay about 25% of your gross income before getting any help.

 

[floridafam]

He is male. I'm just starting to look at what we will need.

So, was it a bad idea fur my husband to increase his 401k contribution if that gets figured back into our income? He's only 41.

DS is hoping, we all are, that he snags a National Merit Scholarship. We won't know for a few months if he's a finalist.

I'm a little scared because I keep hearing that academic scholarships are getting harder and harder to come by.

 

[JillyBean1899]

I stopped filling it out, as our contribution was near equal to tuition and it was a lot of work.

You should still fill out a FAFSA. Some schools require them to apply for school scholarships, which you can sometimes still get even if you don't qualify for grants or Stafford loans.

 

[stacielee]

You should still fill out a FAFSA. Some schools require them to apply for school scholarships, which you can sometimes still get even if you don't qualify for grants or Stafford loans.

This! Exactly!! Some people don't realize they won't even get considered if they haven't done the FAFSA. I'm on my third, and last kid... finally!! Two more years and I'm done! Once you do it, it's a lot easier the next time.

 

[tvguy]

He is male. I'm just starting to look at what we will need.

So, was it a bad idea fur my husband to increase his 401k contribution if that gets figured back into our income? He's only 41.

DS is hoping, we all are, that he snags a National Merit Scholarship. We won't know for a few months if he's a finalist.

I'm a little scared because I keep hearing that academic scholarships are getting harder and harder to come by.

What you put into retirement, 401k or IRA has zero impact on scholarships. But, like I posted, unlike the IRS, which allows you to deduct retirement contributions from your taxable income, Department of Education will not allow you to exempt any money you put into a 401k or IRA from your adjusted gross income, which is the amount of money the Department of Education uses to calculate your expected contribution.
The only way to decrease your expected contribution is for you and your husband to EARN less money.

 

[donkeyandshrek]

I spent my "snow day" Tuesday filling out my tax returns and FAFSA forms. All I needed was info off the tax forms and bank account balances. It was much easier the second time than the first. You can also link your return to FAFSA but I had just efiled and it was too soon to link them

 

[tar heel]

DS is hoping, we all are, that he snags a National Merit Scholarship. We won't know for a few months if he's a finalist.
.

This is not much money unless he goes to one of the schools that offers a free ride to National Merit Finalists. Of course, University of Florida is one of them (unless they've stopped), so that might work out perfectly for him.

 

[jen73]

last year was our first time to fill out the FAFSA, and I really didn't see the need to fill it out as we make too much money and I pretty much figured DD wasn't gonna qualify for need based money. However, her high school insisted. They asked to bring our taxes and said the sooner we filed, the better it would be. At her high school, they asked that our deadline was valentine's day because extra money the state had would be given out March 1 for those who didn't qualify for financial aid ( I have no idea what that meant, that's what our counselor said and we didn't see any of that money, BTW) and the main extra questions that were required on the FAFSA were amt of money in bank accounts, both ours and DD.

They also asked if you owned any houses and if they carried mortgages. If you own them free and clear, you will not qualify for financial aid.

What came out of the filing of FAFSA for us, was as one poster previously said, we should be able to afford to contribute 25% of our income for her college needs...in other words, the whole college bill....lol

Thankfully, for us, DD got a 50% scholarship to a small private university and we pay the other half currently. So we are basically paying the same price as we would have paid for her to attend a state university, but at half off...kind of like a 50% off coupon...lol

As another poster said, National Merit Finalists will only get full rides to a few schools. There was a school in Arizona and another school in South Florida that offered our daughter full rides, maybe one in Ohio. And she was a NMF and National Hispanic Scholar. The school she goes to now, offered her an extra 2K per year because she was one. I was pretty surprised at the LACK of scholarship money offered to her. She got some decent scholarships, but not anything WOW. The private university (that she attends) was really the best offer.

Just don't make any money at all this year...lol That's what we said last year....

Good luck!!

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We just filled out a finanacial aid form last night but not college, just a private school. They wanted to know everything. How many cars do you own, how much each cost. Does your child have a 529, trust, inheritance, savings, CD? Medical expenses, monthly bill expenses. What we paid for our house and how much is it worth now. How much more do we owe on it, did we ever refinance and when. Then the usual tax questions about income. Our application is not complete until we also submit our 2013 taxes which is due tomorrow but they are being a little more laxed with that knowing many are still waiting on paperwork to have them done in the first place.

 

[wiigirl]

You should still fill out a FAFSA. Some schools require them to apply for school scholarships, which you can sometimes still get even if you don't qualify for grants or Stafford loans.

 

[Mom21]

Ok I filled this out today. I must have missed something. I just went through and nowhere did it ask me if I owned my home or owed money or what was in my accounts. Just what was in my daughter's. What did I miss. I just hit the next button when I finished a page. Should I go back in?

 

[floridafam]

Thank you for all of the information!

tar heel,

I think FL stopped giving full rides to NMS. He can get Bright Futures through FL but I don't know how much that is. Miami will give $16,000 per year but he has to out them down as a top choice if he goes through the finalist process.

We will be as prepared as we possibly can.

 

[JillyBean1899]

Thank you for all of the information!

tar heel,

I think FL stopped giving full rides to NMS. He can get Bright Futures through FL but I don't know how much that is. Miami will give $16,000 per year but he has to out them down as a top choice if he goes through the finalist process.

We will be as prepared as we possibly can.

U of M is expensive anyway. Don't forget to consider a community college for the first 2 years. Most have Honors programs (which are more challenging, if he feels that a CC is "beneath" his intelligence level), and if you graduate from a FL CC with an AA, you are guaranteed admission to a State school (not necessarily in the program that you want, like if he wants pre-med or something). It's a lot cheaper, and the classes are exactly the same, but usually with smaller class sizes (Gen Psych at my school has 40 students per class ... U of M or FSU or UCF would have something like 300 per class).

 

[floridafam]

Thanks. He's looking at everything at this point. He already has a full ride to our local state college that he received from a math competition last year. He already said he doesn't want to go there. One of his current top five is MIT. He's only recently started to really do some research. I want him
to make an informed decision but I also want him to enjoy high school.

He will have about 8 AP classes under his belt when he graduates but certain schools only accept certain classes for credit. He's also in the IB program. He's trying to do the most rigorous program possible.

I don't want him to worry. I just want to have all of our financial ducks in a row.

 

[mrspaha]

Regarding your husband's 401K contribution: I think it is an EXCELLENT idea to put as much as you can in retirement savings. Although it does not affect your INCOME, it will not be counted as SAVINGS that you can tap into to help pay for your son's college.

It's been a while since my kids were in college, but that is the way it had been. Also, they consider savings accounts in the kids'names should be tapped into with a higher percentage than savings account of the parents.

 

[SA53]

Just to double check, I don't do this until senior year, correct? Wasn't worried until I saw that scholarships are attached. Down here in Texas, we apply for college August 1st before his senior year and I want to be sure he doesn't miss any opportunities for some money help!!!

Making sure I don't miss anything. This whole thing is so confusing!!!

TIA,


K in SA