Students collecting FAFSA?

he will only get a little bit of help.

 

FAFSA is an interesting system. I know they rely heavily on the STUDENT'S assets and income. They expect the student to use the majority of their money. As far as the parents go, I think it's a little different, because what if your parents aren't paying? Even if they're filthy rich, if they kicked you out of the house and don't speak to you, that doesn't do you much good. When I was a student, I could never figure out the financial aid thing. People got it who shouldn't have, and others who really needed it, didn't. It was also a little odd that the people that worked in the financial aid office had the biggest aid packages!

 

That's what I understood also, if your family has average income - $75,000 a year - the child won't get anything. It seems to be a game I have not been able to figure out...

 

It relies exclusively on the PARENTS income unless you file as an independent(i.e you are paying alone and your parents probably aren't claiming you for tax purposes) or whatever the term is used for that particular document.

I think the FAFSA system is a very !@#$#@4 up system. Its designed to give poor kids free rides. The problem with it besides that, is that it doesnt really take to consider how much other families who arent poor will be affected by the number thats printed for "expected to pay". Real life example from HS that made everyone mad. My family is middle class, low 1xxk a year. My FAFSA form said we were expected to pay approximately 26k a year for my education. Some of my other friends whos parents make less got smaller yet similar numbers. One of my friends who has a mother who doesnt work(she's often sick) but has a boyfriend who does(won't get married because that kills some benefits). His FAFSA form said he was expected to pay : $0. So he applied to wake forest university, a pretty pricey school, got in, and because of his FAFSA got a FREE RIDE all the way through. He didn't end up staying more than 2 years(ended up hating the school) but the option was there. The rest of us (friends that is) seem to have take out loans since well we can't afford to pay everything at once despite what the feds might think, and the poorer amongst us don't have to take out loans since they have to "settle" for free rides. GRRRR

But to answer the main main question: I have no idea how he's getting the money directly from FAFSA, usually they send the checks to the school.

 

if he's living by himself, and having no ties with the family financially, then he'll be able to get it....Same happened with my friend, but I couldn't get it for some reason.

 

FAFSA is an odd system.

 

It's wierd. Im dependent and I recieved grants through FAFSA for a year and half and now all they offer me is subsidized loans even though my parents aren't that well off and my brother is going to school too. I don't understand how they calculate the students need sometimes because I see other students on financial aid that get actual free money in forms of grants and their parents are very well off. Perhaps im missing something...

 

I mostly lurk here but if I may, I'd like to chime in on this thread. To start off, I worked for the Federal Student Aid Information Center for 6 years and I was also on differing types of financial aid in college so I feel I'm pretty well versed in the system.

In the case of a "dependent student," the FAFSA does not exclusively look at parental income. In most cases it does pretty much only look at parental income and assets however if a student makes over $X,XXX then student income is taken in to consideration.

A student who's paying their way or their parents don't claim them on taxes has absolutely nothing to do with dependency status as per the application. There are 7 questions in step 3 of the FAFSA that determine dependency status.
-Were you born before 1 Jan of 199x?
-Will you be working on a masters or doctorate program during the XX-XX school year?
-As of today are you married?
-Do you have children?
-Do you have dependents other than your children who live with you and whom you provide at least half their support?
-Are you an orphan or ward of the court?
-Are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces?

Answering "yes" to at least one of those questions means that you are considered an independent student and your parents information is not required on the application however some schools and states still want to see the parents information for grants and scholarship programs. If one can not answer yes to one of those questions then they do have the option to petition their situation with their financal aid administrator. Although the student and or students family originally fill out the FAFSA, all financial aid awards are determined by the schools financial aid office. The FAFSA just gathers general information. It is up to the student and their family to discuss issues such as personal expenses or other factors that they feel should be considered when the school makes their decision on what the student is allowed to have for the term(s.)

The system is not set up to give poor kids free rides. I can certainly understand your opinion. What has happened is that the system has not been changed to keep up with the times. As tuition and room/board increase as well as family income levels the financial aid awards have stayed the same for years. This actually makes things harder on the lower income family. There are certain maximums that a student can receive per year in Federal Student Aid (FSA.) Often times that amount does not even come close to the cost of attendance of a given institution in turn keeping a lot of people out of better schools, out of state schools or in many cases keeping them from going to school at all whereas those of better financial means have the ability to help cover fees.

As for your acquiantance who attended Wake Forest. It's possible that he got a free ride, however that wasn't all FSA money that paid for that. Because the Dpt. of Education is only allowed $x per student per year based on dependency status, grade level in college, ones Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) if Wake is a pricey school then your acquaintance either got some state based grant or scholarship money, outside grants or scholarships (from companies and so forth,) some sort of tuition waver and or scholarship from the school itself.

I don't know the details of your friends situation other than what you have written here but there is a huge grey area that makes situations like his rather kind of difficult to figure out. Without getting in to details (I'll go in to them if you want) the IRS and the DoE have different qualifiers as to who is dependent on their parents and who isn't. It's quite possible that he should have used his mothers boyfriends info on his application but maybe not depending on housing and other factors. If you think something isn't being done properly then you need to let the schools financial aid office know as it is very possible that the student or others are committing fraud (whether they know it or not) and the school isn't catching it through verification (only 30% of students information is required to be checked out and the checks are often very lax at best.)

Before I close this up as it's getting rather long and I'm sure extremely boring (if you've made it this far) let me touch on the EFC or that money you're expected to pay. The Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, is not what you are expected to pay but it is a gauge of ones financial status. Keep in mind it does not take into consideration bills or any other reason for outgoing funds, only what you're bringing home each year. That figure mostly comes in to play in two areas. If one is eligible for grants then the EFC is used to figure out how much to give. If one is not eligible for grants and has to take out loans then it's basically used to figure out what % of loan money, if any, will be subsidized rather than unsubsidized.

Oh yes, I forgot. Money is sent to the school in bulk amounts. The school then figures out what each student is getting and credits the students account, if you will, and whatever is left after tuition or other fees is then refunded to the student to spend for books, supplies...etc. The exception is with foreign schools but that's a whole other can of worms to discuss at a later time if anyone really cares about that.

As I stated when I started this reply, I lurk around here. I'm not an F-car owner but have always grinned from ear to ear when I've seen or heard one and I found this site after seeing something that was crosslinked over to bimmerfest.com I think and liked the conversations over here (the joke thread has me in tears whenever I read it) so I've just kind of been a fly on the wall for quite some time.

If anyone has any questions on FSA then feel free to post here or PM me if you prefer. You can also get info on www.studentaid.ed.gov or if you really want to see what the schools look at then you can go to www.ifap.ed.gov and explore all the legalese mumbo jumbo at your leisure.

Murcielago, I didn't quote you specifically to pick your post apart, you just happened to be the one who's comments I felt best reflected the general attitude of those outside of the loop. I looked at things your way and to be honest, I pretty much agree with you about how things happen as far as aid goes. I too was from a middle class family and was only eligible for loans. These days those loan amounts barely even touch instate tuition at most state schools. Where you and I and anyone else out there who's going to college on financial aid or knows somoene who is need to do is pressure Congress to allocate more funds to keep up with tuition increases. On a good note, there are 2 new grants coming out. Bad thing is that most of us aren't going to be getting any of that money from what I've read about the programs as of now.

Well, thank you for your time. I hope I didn't step on any toes here and if I did then I humbly apologize. Now, back to your regular scheduled griping about the government.

 

You probably are missing something. First two things I always used to tell students are to not worry about the other guy, you'll never know all the details of his situation that led to what he got in aid and make sure you and or your parents didn't goof on the FAFSA. The third thing I told people was to make sure to talk to your aid advisor about your situation. In your case make sure they know you have a sibling in school as well. If your brother is going to a different school than you, make sure he or your parents let his aid advisor know. Although your FAFSA asked about the # of people in school, it's an often overlooked thing by schools so make sure they know about the additional costs your family is incurring right now.

Best of luck to you.

 

When i did mine, eventhough i was paying of everything myself or without my parents help I still needed to fill out my parents income tax part of the app and I recived squat. And I know one girl who has parents that were going to pay and were well off but somehow she got enough for a full ride at U of M I dont get it or how the system works. So I stopped filing them after the first year.


Back to the first question, As for collecting im not sure what that means but I know after tuition is paid to the school your cut a check for the remainder of what you were alloted so maybe hes saving the extra cash he recives

 

With my current job I am able to pay cash for school and still pay for everything else needed. I admit I still live at home but other than my room and food I spend about 12k on my own needs which I earn the money for. No aid and proud of it. Degree is expected in about 3-4yrs and debt free on graduation.

 

When i went to school my mom had an average income of 33,000 dollars a year and i only got 600 dollars to pay for a 24,000 dollar a year school -_- FASFA is a stupid system.

 

My friend pretty much had a full ride to UT in Austin courtesy of FAFSA, but pretty much pissed it away since all he did was party and got kicked out for Academic Average. This kid didn't need it. Straight honors kid, but didn't respect the education since it was "free" to him. Screws over people like us that would need it.

 

I get nothing but loans from FASFA and parental income currently comes to <50,000 seeing as both my parents are retired. If I wasn't getting ROTC money and church money I'd be sunk in even larger amounts of debt than I already am... and I am already sunk in large amounts of debt. But eh, such is college...

 

Got nothing from FAFSA, but didn't expect anything. My parents told me to fill it out and see what happens. Luckily, I live in FL where getting a full ride into a public school here is easy. Any in-state student just needs a 1270 SAT and 3.5 weighted GPA (I think) for a full ride to any public school (UF and FSU being the best ones). I also got $300 a semester for anything, but I usually spent it on books. If you get a 1000 SAT and 3.0 weighted GPA I think you get the 75% scholarship, which is about $350 a semester out of pocket to cover the rest of tuition, lol.

 

i didnt get any thing. i think im in the wrong demographic.. lol

 

FAFSA is crap. I have to fill out one every year. B/c I am not active military and not over 25 they still count my parents income. They do not take into account that I have not lived with my parents for 4 years and am totally on my own. You dont qualify as an "adult" until 25 under this system. How convenient...

 

Yes i agree with almost everyone here. FAFSA is way out of an average person to understand.
I have two kids in college. One in Business and other in PreMed. Obviously I am a middle class person with single income. They make me pay too much out of pocket. In order to cover that expenses I endup working second job at night. In result 1040 raise. And interesting thing they calculate on the base of last year filing. I had argue with them one time "you looking at the income reported last year,but what happen if i have no job or my income decline for any reson(its true in my case)" They don't want to listen to that point even as a suggestion or comment to improve the system. And second interesting thing is my kid is out of country as a study abroad program and need to file FAFSA. I was trying to file that for not missing the deadline and at one point I call them to get some help and surprisingly they said to me "You cannot file this. This must be file by student and its against the law." I explain to them whole situation saying I kid is out of country and I am the one paying for my kid and I have no right to file the form. Wierd system. They only look the numbers on the tax return. nothing else. No wonder why education going down in this country. Real needy people don't get help when they need it. Financial help should be based on the merits and grades.The more you have more you get.