How does the FAFSA determine the amount of money you're supposed to contribute each school year? Say, May 06-May 07 you worked a full-time job, and made 20K. You're living on your own, and rent and bills barely leave you any money left over. During this time, you fill out the FAFSA and record this as your income. If you're planning to start in the fall at a 20,000/year (cost of attendance, not just tuition) school, do they subtract 20K from your 20K income and not give you anything for financial aid? I'm just trying to figure out everything that goes into figuring the expected contribution. FAFSA is really confusing to me...
I never tried to figure their system out--I assumed it was pretty complex. They basically take all your figures out and figure out an "EFC"--expected family contribution. Based on how high or low that figure is (and I assumed based on what school you go to), they determine how large your loan will be--both subsidized up to the limit, and then unsubsidized if you choose to take both. I just filled out the form and waited to hear back from the school to see what they gave me..
Financial Aid Year: 2007 Tuition and Fees 6,518 Housing/board 1,938 Books/supplies 1,050 Transportation 2,396 Miscellaneous 2,958 Total Budget 14,860 Student Contribution 7,070 Parent Contribution 65,162 Total Family Contribution 72,232 Total Financial Need (Total Budget minus Total Family Contribution) 0 bastards!!
The FAFSA tends to lower the available aid for individuals who work, taking this into consideration much more than parental contribution. This only matters for two types of aid: pell grants and susidized stafford loans. Everybody gets unsubsidized Stafford loans, and to qualify for Perkins loans I believe you have to be pell grant eligible. You have to be under certain levels of EFC to qualify for subsidized staffords and pell grants. If you get back your financial aid package and you are not offered a subsidized stafford loan, perkins loan, or pell grant, most schools have a procedure for you to fill out a change in circumstance letter, where you can argue why your EFC is unrealistic because you will no longer be working or whatever. If you do all of this and there still isn't enough financial aid for you to afford to go to school, look into Plus loans and private loans.
If you haven't filled it out, just do it. What's the worst that could happen? My sister goes to SMU, average cost of attendence is over 30,000. My dad makes more than 30 grand a year, but that doesn't mean they expect him to pay that, so the family contribution is really low. I think JaWindex was kidding, at least I hope because I could have sworn that the family contribution would max out at your total budget, so student and parent contribution shouldn't be over 14,860 unless he filled out his FAFSA wrong.
That's probably the case, I seem to remember 24 being the cutoff age? I "lucked out" for the first two years because my father worked overseas, so technically he didn't have to report his income up to a certain dollar amount on his 1040 or W2 or whatever they used for documentation, which made the parental contribution a lot lower and got me eligible for Pell Grants and Work Study. Of course, when Junior year came around and I gave him my application to him, he told me that I wouldn't get as much aid as I had in the past, then asked me how I planned to pay for it, then he balked about co-signing my student loans, but did anyways. In anycase, that's probably the next step, some deferred Stafford and PLUS Loans that you won't have to pay off until after you graduate and get a full-time job.
my father works overseas and he filled out a form that has international workers listed. If you are an american tax payer, ie have houses or w/e i think you have to fill that form out... or maybe he is just honest. If i could wipe off my fathers income, which is quite easy if i just dont add that extra tax form, then i could very well be getting my whole tuition paid for... Like most of those punk rich kids in sugarland who "tweak" their fafsa forms and w2's to get their whole tuition paid for while some more deserving (financially) people miss out and end up having to work their ass off for college.
Man, it's pretty ridiculous that they expect every penny you earn to go toward tuition, even if that money has already been spent on rent, bills, food, and other living expenses... By the wayyy...adeel...do you have any ideas on how these aforementioned rich kids cheat the system and get their tuitions paid for? Tell me and I'll hook you up with this really hot Brazilian guy I met last summer.
Parents can be very brinksmanlike with their kids' college money: it's basically the only "bargaining chip" they have left with a 18+ yr old. Also, student loans, even private ones, are still administered via the Dept. of Education; so one still has to fill out this form to get those, anyway.
FAFSA is total horsesh*t. Like all MBAs, I left my full-time job to go back to school, meaning I would be earning all of $0 while I'm in school. Unfortunately, because I put away a sizeable amount of cash and assets for school, I was deemed unfit for a subsidized Stafford loan. Nevermind the fact that 100% of my savings is going towards books, rent, food, and other living expenses. Moreover, interest rates are a ridiculous 6.8% right now, so that's a huge deal.
Yeah, I lived on dorm food and rode Metro all through college (good fun riding that badboy to internship and job interviews, especialy when they change the route and you end up walking the last 20 or so minutes) so I'm probably not in that group.
Yea and somehow I have friends who get over 1500 for community college from FAFSA a semester and the part that pisses me off is that theyre not even serious about school. they take a class or two and pocket the remaining money at the end of the semester if only they gave me half of that from FAFSA i would be happier the system is screwed!!!! Sorry I had to vent i just transferred from HCC to UHD and the cost difference is ridiculous! No financial aid makes it worse and i make under 10k a year. even tho i live at home its still tough.
