Filling out the FAFSA
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| Wed, 01-03-2007 - 2:30pm |
Any parents who have kids who are seniors or in college must have the same dread I do at filling out the FAFSA (app. for financial aid). I went to a 2-hour seminar at the high school which was very helpful. I would really like to know why they make these things so complicated. I supposed they could ask for a copy of your income taxes, but that doesn't give the value of your assets. We are middle income, too poor to pay for college in full but not low income where fin. aid is guaranteed, so it will be a surprise. My DD already has one scholarship if she goes to a state school for free tuition, which isn't as good as it sounds. The tuition is about $1500 a year, but fees are set by each university and can be up to $6000 a year.
Then we are in a situation where I am divorce and remarried. Accd. to the FAFSA, it's the "household income" that counts, so I have to list my DH's income and assets, plus the amt. of child support that I get. I just knew my DH would be upset about that. He seems to hold some grudge against my ex, which I don't understand. It's not like my ex doesn't pay child support. He has always paid on a regular basis. We actually had an argument about it this week, which DH later apologized for. I said that I couldn't help it, that was the way the form was made and it didn't matter who was claiming her as an exemption, or what. Besides, I think it would work out better because we have 5 people in our household and after next year 2 will be in college at the same time, so there will be more fin. aid. My ex is also remarried to someone who probably makes the most money of all of us and she only has one child, who is 21, so I don't see that helping. DH has also asked many times what the ex is going to do about college. I have reminded him many times that he is going to pay 1/2.
Of course, DH doesn't think of the fact that since he is widowed, we will have to pay 100% of his DD's college where w/ my DD, we'll only have to pay 50%. And I really had to restrain myself (and I did) from saying to him that his DD will have no chance of getting any scholarships since she isn't a good student and has no activities, sports or anything else that might help. Of course, then she is probably only going to get into a community college which is less expensive, so it will balance out.

I just felt my blood pressure rise reading your post! Lol - seriously, it's about that time for me as well and I hate it. I hate having to include my H's income most of all because our monies are all separate, so the income I claim should really only be based on mine and mine alone, plus child support. Exh is fairly reliable about his support payments, so that's not much of an issue, but including H's income really burns me up because it's simply not fair for the gov't to assume that we pool our money - we don't. I pay for my dds'.
Anyway, you mentioned something about it being a surprise? Well, brace yourself, because I was blown away by how little the Federal gov't offered for dd19's education last year. I had to take out a monumental loan to help with her first year. And now I have this year to think about, and dd19 isn't eligible for most scholarship money - not that I ever hear of anyone getting any anyway except locally. On top of that, dd17 is right behind her this Fall!
H and I were talking about this last night and wound up haing a heated discussion over funding and prioritizing...gag me. Okay, well, didn't mean to go nutso on you...lol...best of luck! It is not fair.
FAFSA is the epitome of bureaucratic BS.
I’m glad you found the FAFSA seminar helpful. I did this a few years ago, and concluded that if you can afford transportation to GET yourself to the seminar, there is nothing FAFSA can do for you as far as financial assistance.
Yet, for some unknown reason FAFSA is the first question asked when applying for student loans or scholarships. Why?
So... I gathered all the crap they asked for and completed the application on-line. Frankly, I was not very accurate with the income and expense data since it was guaranteed I would get the automated response that I don���t qualify. All this to get a student loan?
Makes no sense to me.
Particularly frustrating for blended families where income needs to be listed that is not part of any support for the applicant student.
is it true you are not to list a 401K as an asset?
I had done this with my first one and we were screened a no but I wonder if we had elminated that chunk if it would have mattered?
Anyone know for sure-I heard that somewhere recently but couldnt tell you where
DH has insinuated that EVERYONE gets financial aid and scholarships except us-well, I told him he is more than welcome to step up and help with some of this so we can be like EVERYONE
The scholarship stuff was depressing for me-if the high test scores went hand in hand with high grades? But they didnt. And we dont have the right ethnicity, employers, or last name. And activities were zero with one and minimal with two
I have wondered about trying a search service though-I gave up pretty quick in frustration that I wasn't a Malaysian Hispanic Italian with the last name of O'Hooligan who worked for Betty Crocker=aarghhhh
Never filled out the FAFSA for DS23, and won't do it for DS17. Glad I can skip that headache. I know our income and assets will make us a 'no'; and neither boy did well enough on tests or participated in enough activities to get a scholarship for which the FAFSA might be req'd. So even though the general rule is to fill it out, no matter what, we didn't and won't.
My depression-era parents, neither college-educated, mom a school secretary and dad a draftsman, paid for tuition and room & board for all 4 of us kids to go to college, and somehow I always felt we should do the same for ours. (TWO we can handle.) Naturally, I inherited my mom's frugality, and our modest home and my $10 jackets and wearing hand-me-downs from my sisters & boys, left us with too much $ to qualify for any assistance. (When we did splurge it was on travel, or eating out.) If we had spent like many do, perhaps we'd qualify. But we like the security of being low-debt, even if it means we get no gov't asstnc for tuition. Although DH had trouble finding a job when he initially finished school two yrs after we were married in 1977, since then he's been quite successful, and for that we're very grateful.
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