Help me understand about the FAFSA

[golfgal]

Based upon our EFC it states it on the printout confirm page.....and only if our EFC stays the same when the "corrected" tax numbers go in. It wasn't surprising. It would be nice for grants but we're not holding our breath.

Ok, but read that again-ours states pretty much the same thing but it also says that "the amount depends on, among other things, your year in college, the cost of attendance at your school.....". At a more expensive school, they will qualify for more aid because it costs more--which is what a lot of people are missing here. If the school costs $40,000 and your family contribution is $10,000, you qualify for a need of $30,000 but if your school costs $10,000 and your expected family contribution is $10,000 you qualify for nothing.

 

[OhMari]

Filled it out for our first and nothing came from it so didn't bother for the other two.

You should still fill it out. If one of your kids are over 22, and not your dependent, they can get more from FAFSA. Plus if they are in their 3rd year or higher of education, there are more benefits from FAFSA. FAFSA stinks for 1st and 2nd year college kids.

 

[golfgal]

You should still fill it out. If one of your kids are over 22, and not your dependent, they can get more from FAFSA. Plus if they are in their 3rd year or higher of education, there are more benefits from FAFSA. FAFSA stinks for 1st and 2nd year college kids.

And, if they apply for scholarships, even merit based scholarships, most require that you fill this out anyway even if you don't qualify for federal aid.

 

[tekmom]

Ok, but read that again-ours states pretty much the same thing but it also says that "the amount depends on, among other things, your year in college, the cost of attendance at your school.....". At a more expensive school, they will qualify for more aid because it costs more--which is what a lot of people are missing here. If the school costs $40,000 and your family contribution is $10,000, you qualify for a need of $30,000 but if your school costs $10,000 and your expected family contribution is $10,000 you qualify for nothing.

I understand that, but our son is planning on going to a SUNY school and our EFC is more than tuition, room and board combined. We are paying ourselves because he's planning on going to grad/med school and we don't want him to incur any loan debt until then, if need be.
We can afford paying for the State school on our own, but if he went to the more expensive school, aid can be rolled up in Parent plus, Perkins, or Stafford loans and our income is too high for grants. For example, NYU is a $50,000plus per year school but if we can afford say, $20,000 ourselves, I don't need the remaining $30,000 per year rolled up in an aid package made up of mostly loans with "maybe" a $5000.00 pyr. grant.

Meeting aid can mean steering you (the parents) into a nice big loan package, because DS himself, will only qualify for Staffords (or maybe Perkins). If can cough up $20,000 myself I don't want to have to take $$$$ extra in loans, especially for undergrad. He'll do undergrad as inexpensively as possible at the best school within that financial range and save the debt for grad/med school.
A good website with alot of useful information that has already been mentioned, is collegeconfidential.com.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Filled it out for our first and nothing came from it so didn't bother for the other two.

Doing it each year may surprise you. As you add more family members in college to the formula, the EFC goes down.

And yes, as said above, with the FAFSA, it oftentimes can be less costly attending a private institution, where there is more money available to be used, vs. a public/state institution, where generally there is little money available.

 

[golfgal]

I understand that, but our son is planning on going to a SUNY school and our EFC is more than tuition, room and board combined. We are paying ourselves because he's planning on going to grad/med school and we don't want him to incur any loan debt until then, if need be.
We can afford paying for the State school on our own, but if he went to the more expensive school, aid can be rolled up in Parent plus, Perkins, or Stafford loans and our income is too high for grants. For example, NYU is a $50,000plus per year school but if we can afford say, $20,000 ourselves, I don't need the remaining $30,000 per year rolled up in an aid package made up of mostly loans with "maybe" a $5000.00 pyr. grant.

Meeting aid can mean steering you (the parents) into a nice big loan package, because DS himself, will only qualify for Staffords (or maybe Perkins). If can cough up $20,000 myself I don't want to have to take $$$$ extra in loans, especially for undergrad. He'll do undergrad as inexpensively as possible at the best school within that financial range and save the debt for grad/med school.
A good website with alot of useful information that has already been mentioned, is collegeconfidential.com.

There is a cap on how much a student can take out in Stafford loans each year. Parent loans are NOT part of the aid package. If your expected contribution is $20,000, it stays at $20,000 if school costs $5000 or $50,000, what changed is how much your get for grants, etc. You may make too much for PELL grants but the schools have grants as well along with other scholarship money and they can increase the work/study award to whatever they want. I had an unlimited work study grant because of the on campus job I got in school. My work study alone paid for my college but with the other aid and what not I actually got to keep all of my work/study money.

Say your son wants to go to Harvard and your AGI is $93,000, guess what, Harvard is FREE for you (incomes under $100,000 qualify for free tuition at Harvard). If my child was eligible for this and got into Harvard I would jump all over this. Again, just an example of why a private school can end up being LESS expensive. Also, if your son got a good scholarship for the private school, let him live on campus, again, increasing your need. Housing and transportation costs for a student living at home are not factored into the need on the aid formula but students living on campus are.

 

[barkley]

I understand that, but our son is planning on going to a SUNY school and our EFC is more than tuition, room and board combined. We are paying ourselves because he's planning on going to grad/med school and we don't want him to incur any loan debt until then, if need be.
We can afford paying for the State school on our own, but if he went to the more expensive school, aid can be rolled up in Parent plus, Perkins, or Stafford loans and our income is too high for grants. For example, NYU is a $50,000plus per year school but if we can afford say, $20,000 ourselves, I don't need the remaining $30,000 per year rolled up in an aid package made up of mostly loans with "maybe" a $5000.00 pyr. grant.

Meeting aid can mean steering you (the parents) into a nice big loan package, because DS himself, will only qualify for Staffords (or maybe Perkins). If can cough up $20,000 myself I don't want to have to take $$$$ extra in loans, especially for undergrad. He'll do undergrad as inexpensively as possible at the best school within that financial range and save the debt for grad/med school.
A good website with alot of useful information that has already been mentioned, is collegeconfidential.com.

just a suggestion-you might have him go ahead and apply at some private schools and state school in other states even if he KNOWS he wants to attend a particular one. reason being is some schools if they REALY want a particular student can come up with grants and scholarships to entice them such it can offset the cost (or the school he WANTS to go to may try to match the percentage of tuition reduction to keep him interested in attending there).

this is what happened with our babysitter's dd-she applied to the couple of in state schools she was interested in (pre-med), but also put down some 'dream' schools she and her parents knew based on the fafsa they could'nt afford. surprise, surprise-she ended up with 2 of the dream schools (gonzaga and cornell) offering her SIGNIFICANT scholarships and grants (one offered enough to cover almost 50% of her tuition for her undergrad, the other offered her free tuition for her first session, then grants/scholarships to cover a large portion of the remainder of the program). when she let this be known to the other schools she had applied to they revised their inital offers and came back with much more generous non loan funding.

in the end, had she opted to go to the state school she was initialy interested in it would have cost her about 50% less than she/parents anticipated based on the fafsa results. she ended up opting to go to one of the dream schools b/c with their offer it ended up being less than she and her parents had budgeted out for the state school absent any assistance.

 

[Chris2597]

You should still fill it out. If one of your kids are over 22, and not your dependent, they can get more from FAFSA. Plus if they are in their 3rd year or higher of education, there are more benefits from FAFSA. FAFSA stinks for 1st and 2nd year college kids.

I thought the magic FAFSA age was 24 for an adult child to not have to include their parents income as part of the FA package.

 

[luvsJack]

I thought the magic FAFSA age was 24 for an adult child to not have to include their parents income as part of the FA package.

It is unless married, having a child, some military, or orphaned or made a ward of the court.

When your FAFSA is complete it, on the page where it gives your EFC it will say "you may qualify for some pell" or "you may qualify for loans or work study" or something to that effect. I am not completely sure that the EFC is the same all over but for our students, it cannot be over 4600 (or somewhere in that area) to qualify for Pell. There are other grants that is given by the financial aid office and it all depends on what is on the FAFSA.

As for loans, there is a limit to how much a student qualifies for in an academic year. Actually there is a limit for any aid; and that $ is different for different people. So, if your child is on Pell and is full time fall and spring and plans to attend summer; he or she may want to hold off on any loans until summer to make sure they can get one.

On top of that there is a lifetime loan limit for undergraduate studies. Make sure to read the paperwork and figure out how many years your child (or you) plans to be in school and how best to spread out this $ amount. This is why it is best not to borrow more than absolutely needed in any one semester. You never know what may happen or what decision you may make later.

Oh, and someone mentioned Parent Plus loans. I don't know anything about these except that our Financial Aid Director strongly advices NOT to get these loans unless there is just no alternative. So, just make sure to know all the details on it before signing for anything.

One more thing, our financial aid person explained to me that Pell does not increase. Regardless of where you go to school or how much it cost--$2675 is full pell for one semester. (another reason we have so many 1st and 2nd year students coming to us rather than a university). What can go up is the cost of school which is figured into the efc and budget for the student. Loan does increase. It goes up when you go from being a dependent to an independent student and it goes up from freshman to sophomore year (don't know after that as we only have the two). But the gpa requirement for loans goes up accordingly.

 

[Amy]

I've been following this thread, but can I jump in and ask a question? This is the first time I'll be doing a FAFSA when we'll have 2 in college. I'm holding off until we get some of our tax info in the mail before I even look at the form. I remember from last year that once I had our taxes done, it was quite easy.

My question: will I need to fill out a separate FAFSA for each student? I remember last year that I just had to logon to the FAFSA website and the form was pre-filled for our oldest DS. Will there be a space on the form to enter info for our youngest DS, or will I have to fill out a separate FAFSA for him?

I assume that it can all go on one form, because the EFC gets split, right? If it comes back and says that our EFC is $20,000, if we have one student, that's all considered his, but with two students, it would be an EFC of $10,000 each.

 

[golfgal]

I've been following this thread, but can I jump in and ask a question? This is the first time I'll be doing a FAFSA when we'll have 2 in college. I'm holding off until we get some of our tax info in the mail before I even look at the form. I remember from last year that once I had our taxes done, it was quite easy.

My question: will I need to fill out a separate FAFSA for each student? I remember last year that I just had to logon to the FAFSA website and the form was pre-filled for our oldest DS. Will there be a space on the form to enter info for our youngest DS, or will I have to fill out a separate FAFSA for him?

I assume that it can all go on one form, because the EFC gets split, right? If it comes back and says that our EFC is $20,000, if we have one student, that's all considered his, but with two students, it would be an EFC of $10,000 each.

That question popped up at the bottom of the form when I was filling it out and I didn't read it to get the answer. Hopefully someone will know.

 

[luvsJack]

I've been following this thread, but can I jump in and ask a question? This is the first time I'll be doing a FAFSA when we'll have 2 in college. I'm holding off until we get some of our tax info in the mail before I even look at the form. I remember from last year that once I had our taxes done, it was quite easy.

My question: will I need to fill out a separate FAFSA for each student? I remember last year that I just had to logon to the FAFSA website and the form was pre-filled for our oldest DS. Will there be a space on the form to enter info for our youngest DS, or will I have to fill out a separate FAFSA for him?

I assume that it can all go on one form, because the EFC gets split, right? If it comes back and says that our EFC is $20,000, if we have one student, that's all considered his, but with two students, it would be an EFC of $10,000 each.

Hmmmm. Good question. I will ask our financial aid person this question tomorrow and get back to you, if no one else answers. I am thinking you have to do a separate form but that it would pre-fill the general info and parent info from the other child's form; leaving only the student's income info to put in.

I know that when its a parent and child that are both in school, the efc for the parent will be lowered (because of the parent's financial responsibility to the child) but am honestly not completely sure if it is two children. I know that in our students that are siblings, they can both qualify for some aid or sometimes one does and not the other. If one doesn't qualify it is usually because of student income that the other didn't have.

 

[Lorix2]

Does anyone know if there's something on the FASFA for an unemployed parent at the time of submission?

DD17 is graduating this year and DH is laid off right now.

 

[golfgal]

Hmmmm. Good question. I will ask our financial aid person this question tomorrow and get back to you, if no one else answers. I am thinking you have to do a separate form but that it would pre-fill the general info and parent info from the other child's form; leaving only the student's income info to put in.

I know that when its a parent and child that are both in school, the efc for the parent will be lowered (because of the parent's financial responsibility to the child) but am honestly not completely sure if it is two children. I know that in our students that are siblings, they can both qualify for some aid or sometimes one does and not the other. If one doesn't qualify it is usually because of student income that the other didn't have.

That is what I am thinking too since you have to put the student's name, social security number, etc on the form and only the last name and first initial of each parent. Without knowing for sure I would say you have to fill one out for each child since it really is the "kid" information backed up with the parent information vs the parent information backed up with kid info (if you follow that).

 

[luvsJack]

That is what I am thinking too since you have to put the student's name, social security number, etc on the form and only the last name and first initial of each parent. Without knowing for sure I would say you have to fill one out for each child since it really is the "kid" information backed up with the parent information vs the parent information backed up with kid info (if you follow that).

yeah, i do actually. And that is right, so makes me more sure that you do have to fill one out for each student.

 

[golfgal]

Does anyone know if there's something on the FASFA for an unemployed parent at the time of submission?

DD17 is graduating this year and DH is laid off right now.

Yes, there is a question about having a displaced parent (unemployed or underemployed).

 

[luvsJack]

Does anyone know if there's something on the FASFA for an unemployed parent at the time of submission?

DD17 is graduating this year and DH is laid off right now.

If there isn't anything about it, ask your financial aid office for a "special circumstances form". They will either just give you the form or help you fill it out. Either way, you will probably need documentation. Your dh's last check stub and his unemployment check stub or something showing he has applied for unemployment.

 

[princess.chell]

On the form online there is a drop down box and one of the choices is that you "will file" your tax return. We used our last pay stubs (well for DH, mine is all on Quickbooks) to do our preliminary taxes using TurboTax and transferred that information to the Fin Aid form. You can get most of the information you need on your tax forms without needing your W-2. Then you can go back and amend your FAFSA once you really get your taxes done. When you submit the FAFSA it will give you an estimate of what your expected family contribution will be. There is also a question that asks if a parent is a displaced worker so your mom would qualify for that.

Keep in mind that say your expected family contribution is $10,000. The state school costs $14,000 so you get $4000 in aide but the private school costs $40,000 so you get $30,000 in aid (grants, loans, etc.) This is somewhat simplified but it shows the general process.

Use the numbers from 2008 return as an estimate, then you can go back into the FAFSA with the actual numbers when you do your 2009 taxes. Some of DS's schools have a FAFSA deadline of February, so it's all about meeting the deadline for the school.

Thanks =) I'm gunna pass that along to my dad so he can start soon. I'm a little anxious to get all this done so I can figure out my college plans and start enjoying my second semester of senior year!

 

[disfan07]

It is not an option in our house because we firmly believe that going away to college is about more than what you learn in the classroom and that transferring into college 2 years later does not give you the same experience as starting out as a freshman at that school. That was our experience in college and same with pretty much everyone we know. I also don't believe the classes are "exactly" the same-I know they are no where near the same here as the community colleges are not tied to the state schools like they are in other areas. Also, quite frankly, our kids are smarter than that. I am sure this will come off sounding snobbish but they can do better than community college and we want them to. DS14 has his sights set pretty high for college and going to a community college for a year or two first would do him a huge disservice. DD will most likely get a golf scholarship and again, going to a community college will do her a huge disservice. DS17 has zero interest in going that route and has tried to talk some of his friends out of doing that because he knows they will never finish if they go that route.

I think the worst thing you can do for your child is limit where they go to school because of money. If they want to go somewhere that badly, they can make it work, especially if they are a good student-colleges WANT them and will help them find the money.

You have got to be FREAKIN kidding me!!!! Okay...so im going to say what I can without getting points or banned frmo the boards....


So I went to community college (finishing up my 2nd year) and I am transferring to either UCLA, UC Irvine or UC Santa Barbara to get my BA in Psychology with a focus in child development. I am planning on going on to get my Masters in Psycholgy and my PhD or PsyD in Developmental Psychology. I am a semester ahead so I will have a full semester to get my minor in Early Childhood Development as well as my bachelors.

My friends at school are transferring to UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Berkley, ASU, Cal Poly, etc.
So im guessign your saying that we are not as good as your kids. That we are not as smart as your kids becasue we went to a community college?

In california, the community colleges work with the UC and CSU schools for transferring. You get a list of major prep courses from the schools you want to transfer to and you complete those courses at the community college. You commpelte what is called an IGETC. Its general Ed requirements. They are the same as what are offered at the four-year schools. In ways, I think they are better becasue they are not a lecture class with hundreds od kids in them. Most of our classes max out at 35-40 kids. Some have up to 50, while teh science classes have 25.

I had teh grades to get into a 4 year school. You have no idea what the situation is of kids at community colleges. I couldnt go 2 hours away to school. Wasnt an option. Too many medical issues. Too many hospitalizations. I needed to be near MY doctors adn MY hospital. An dyou know what. A BIG advantage was that yes, it saved A LOT of money. I will be able to pay for all of my undergraduate schooling except for one semester.

And there is no difference between kids finishing school whetehr they start at community college or whetehr they start at a 4 year school. If a kid isnt determinefd to compelte school, it wont mean a rats behind where they started.

I was able to have course loads of 15 credits, work 20-25 hours/wee, volunteer at the childrens hospital AND handle my doctors appts and hospitalizations in teh past 2 years. I can guarantee that I have gotten more life experience, more job experience, and more tiem management skills than most people at 4 year shcools.

So DONT YOU DARE make any remarks about community college. DONT YOU DARE look down on people who begin at community college. DONT YOU DARE!!!

 

[disykat]

So DONT YOU DARE make any remarks about community college. DONT YOU DARE look down on people who begin at community college. DONT YOU DARE!!!

You need to calm yourself down. There are many of us who feel it is better, if possible, for our academically strong students to go to a four year college and live away from home over our local community college options. That is not the same as saying community college is never a good option.

I've taken classes at our community college and my personal experience was that the classes were inferior to what I've taken at a four year university. Even with that, we still have smart kids that do well when they go on. However, it will be our last resort.

Community colleges AND four year colleges are all highly variable and the best thing the student can do is compare all the options and make the best choice for them based on the specific colleges.