How can dependent students get an auto zero EFC? Two conditions must be met.
First, your parent must have an adjusted gross income less than $30,000.
Second, someone in your parent’s household must be participating in one of the federal benefit programs detailed in questions 77-81, or your parent(s) are eligible to file a 1040EZ or 1040A federal tax return, or your parent is a dislocated worker, as specified in question 85.
I’ve heard of illegal immigrants marrying U.S. citizen so they could remain in the country, but marrying for a college education is a new one.
At the beginning of the month I ranted about how the FAFSA’s dependent status leaves many in the lurch. The magic number is 24 years of age to become an independent student and increase your financial aid allotment, unless you are serving actively in the military, are a veteran, working on a masters degree, are emancipated, or married. If you meet any of these conditions you are granted an independent status regardless of age.
According to an article published in the student-run newspaper The LumberJack one student tied the knot just so she could continue her education.
She explained that with the tightening credit market she was unable to secure a private loan despite her father co-signing. His excellent credit score and six figure salary were not enough. The problem was that he had too many co-signed debts between all his family members. Three daughters and his spouse are all in school.
So she decided to take the plunge for a couple of hundred dollars and is now eligible for thousands more in federal aid.
As we head into the warm summer months, many students will be turning their focus to seasonal employment, family vacations, and long days at the beach. Student loans rarely find a place on the summer checklist. I’d like to tell you that’s because students have squared away their financial affairs beforehand, but I don’t want [...]
It is no surprise that the default rate on Federal student loans is the highest it has been since 1998. It can be kind of tough to make your monthly loan payments when you don’t have a job. With unemployment rising, so to is people’s inability to keep up with their student loan payments. [...]
In the financial aid forum there are many posts from students who are at a loss. They had a rough semester….a family member passed away, or they got sick and couldn’t keep up with their school work. While I do feel bad for people when things like this happen, your school has no choice but to hold you to the standards of the rest of the student body. If something extraordinary happens in your life and you can’t keep up with your school work, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. A lot of people think that their school “will understand”. It is not that the school officials don’t empathize with you, but they do have policies they have to adhere to. So if you receive a Pell Grant and/or a Stafford loan and you cannot complete a semester, and you don’t officially withdraw from your classes then you may be faced with the following issues:
You will be required to pay back your Pell grant, since you did not maintain satisfactory academic progress. This will show up as an open balance to the school and you will not be able to register or take more classes until you pay that grant back
If your GPA drops below a 2.0 then you will not be able to borrow the Stafford loan for the next semester because you will have to get your grades up first, before you will be eligible again.
Your school can expel you if you don’t maintain a certain GPA
So the bottom line is, that while things don’t always go as you planned, you can’t just ignore your school work and deal with it later. The consequences of doing that can be severe, and can make it so that you cannot re-enroll in college because you have a large balance at the school that you are not able to pay for out of your pocket.
If you have your pin number you can go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and select “Add or Delete a School Code” to make changes online or you can call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID. If you call you’ll need your Data Release Number (DRN), which is located on your FAFSA on the web confirmation page and on your SAR.
The first thing you need to know about filing your FAFSA online is that you’re not going anywhere without your 4-digit FAFSA pin number, which serves as your signature. And if you are a dependnet student both you and your parents must obtain separate pin numbers. If you need a pin number you can visit http://www.pin.ed.gov/ to request one.
PIN-related online options:
Apply for a PIN for the first time or request a duplicate pin
Check the status of a PIN application
Request that your PIN be changed if it has been compromised
FAFSA PIN numbers are optional. You may submit your FAFSA today without a PIN. You can also sign a printable FAFSA Form and make corrections on your paper Student Aid Report (SAR) without having a FAFSA PIN number(s). That said, having a PIN makes your FAFSA application go much faster. You can expect to receive your Student Aid Report (SAR) in about 3-5 business days.
Are you working full time and going to school? It is more common now for students to work while they are obtaining their degree. And even more common is the use of financial aid and student loans to pay for their tuition. There can be a gray area about how much you are eligible to receive if you are not attending school on a full time basis. So first lets clear up what is considered full time and what is considered part time.
Your school determines your official status. Most schools classify 12 credits as full time, while other schools consider 9 credits full time. For part time students it is usually 6-9 credits, and anything under 6 credits is usually considered below part time (which means you would not be eligible for aid or federal loans). Remember that school’s determine your actual status, and not every school uses these guidelines to determine a student’s status.
So that being said, if you are eligible for grants from the Federal government, then your grant amount is directly correllated with your status, so you will get less if you are a part time student. Loans can be different, and this is where we enter the grey area. The subsidized Stafford loan and the Perkins loan are loans that are based on financial need, meaning you have to show you need those loans in order to get them. These loan amounts can be decreased if you switch from a full time student to a part time student. Unsubsidized Stafford loans are not based on financial need, which means that regardless of your status (but must be at least part time) you can typically get up to the amount in which you are eligible for based on your classification as a student (independent v. dependent). I use the word “typically” because there is no clear cut “rule” for this, and it up to the school and their policy, but most school’s do work this way. If you have an experience with the financial aid office regarding your part time status and your financial aid please post a comment.
Since last October I have been beating that go back to school drum and it looks like you’ve listened. Yep, it’s 100% my doing that FAFSA filings are up 20.8% from the first quarter of 2009, which breaks down to over a million more applications from the first quarter of 2008 (6,586,007 to 5,449,774). But all joking aside, going back to school was the prudent thing for many to do and there are many reasons for the drive in numbers.
New programs like the one we’ve seen in Philadelphia where all 14 commnuity colleges are offering or finalizing plans for tuition assistance to locals who have lost jobs have contrubuted to the number surge. Also many schools have broadcast that they are allocating more dollars toward financial aid to help students which has given many a renewed hope that they may get some assistance. And thousands of others are just getting their applications in early knowing that a lot of the aid will be gone otherwise. All of these factors have contributed to FAFSA numbers climbing like the mercury in a thermometer in the Texas sun, hee-haw!
I hope you already filed your FAFSA for 2009-2010, but if you haven’t there still may be time. Just check with your school’s financial aid office.
Progressive taxation is taxing the wealthy at higher rates than the poor, which is basically what the FAFSA does. The more money you make the more you are expected to pay toward either your own or your child’s education.
Generally speaking I do agree with how the FAFSA process works, but I can certainly see the other side of the coin. We live in a capitalist society that rewards forward thinking and ambition. Small-business owners help our nations GDP, and supply jobs for millions of Americans. And what do you get for your hard work and 16 hour days? You get a tuition bill larger than Oprah when she’s off the diet wagon.
It does seem a bit unfair to me that if you work hard your entire life to put yourself and family in a good financial position that you could wind up paying $160,000 in tuition for one student to attend a private school, and that’s just for his or her undergrad expenses. The government basically says thanks for working your butt off to get where you are. Now we’re going to use your tax dollars to help pay for some other child’s education while we continue to charge you sticker price for your own. Is that fair?
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their degree. And even more common is the use of 
