This (SAI) has been requested by the financial aid community for years.
I am concerned about the change regarding number in college. That does not just affect middle/higher income families. It absolutely impacts low income families that donât have an auto zero EFC.
I am out of the loop now that I no longer work in the field, but I will check into all of the changes later & give my opinion on the impact.
thanks for sharing this. I will have 2 in college in '23/24. weâve only let our kids take out subsidized loans, and thatâs only been when weâve had 2 in college at a time. wondering how that will shake out down the road with the EFCs not being split. Anyway, itâs good to know this change.
my question from that article is this: â basically the cash support on a studentâs behalf. What does this all mean? not understanding. will those funds be not counted? or counted elsewhere? what do you think? thanks.
"Untaxed income and benefits will no longer include the following:
* Child support received
* Workmanâs compensation
* Veteransâ education benefits
* Housing, food and other allowances for military and clergy
* Cash support and any money paid on the studentâs behalf
* Other untaxed income and benefits"
By then I will only have 1 left in college but this seems like a lot of people will get hurt especially more middle income people and like those who fill out the CSS, divorced parents, but maybe Iâm wrong. Itâs great to see that child support is taken out especially because for many states it ends when the kid graduates high school anyway and isnât even relevant when the kid is a freshman in college.
I have never been charged a fee for the FAFSA, only the stupid CSS. The whole thing is a racket and there are so many things all around that still need to be changed with the system, but I guess for some this will be a start.
My understanding is they wonât be counted as income. So grandma gifts you 10K, 5K of it doesnât get tacked on the EFC. It sounds like it will still count as an asset, but that seems a lot easier to get around since you only report assets as of the date you fill out the FAFSA.
Are you serious? Who did that? Doesnât everyone just go to the Fafsa website directly and apply?
Btw, for anyone else reading about this, if you have a boy make sure they sign up for the selective services by the time theyâre 18. You can go directly to the selective services website and do it early and they will automatically enroll your son when they turn 18. We did that and just got my sonâs letter this week (his bday was late November), or you can do it automatically when you fill out Fafsa). But it is a legal requirement for all men when theyâre 18!! So many people forget every year.
A shocking number of people in my (affluent) area pay someone to do their FAFSA, although one specific provider combines that service with an all around âlet me help you affordâ college offering.
Our HS PTA had this local provider speak and I about hit the roof when one of the first things he said is how he helps people strategize the schools they apply to based on peer schools being able to see each other on FAFSA, and that he would handle any resultant FA negotiations. SighâŠI mean how can one respect this guy when he doesnât know the obvious, easy things? Still fighting to not have the recording of that session posted for all to watch.
No offense to you or anyone else, but that is about the dumbest thing I ever heard. Our school has workshops to do it which I went to with my first kid, but it was so unnecessary. I quickly learned that filling out the FAFSA is a no brainer and takes next to no time at all. Just have your tax return nearby, know where your assets are and how much they are and itâs pretty simplistic and I say that from someone whoâs financial stuff is somewhat messy as my husband and I filed separate tax returns and I had to report child support, so it was double the work.
Yes, filing FAFSA is easy once you have your documents in hand. Even non-financial types can easily complete it.
I donât think many schools (public or private) hold workshopsâŠmany have the policy to be relatively hands off with finances. For example, counselors shouldnât know a families income and asset picture. Our large public school does not hold workshops to help with FAFSA, I expect it varies how much a given counselor even knows about FAFSA, so they would not be qualified to run a workshop.
Any laymen can do it, and the workshop is just guiding parents through the process to complete the fafsa at the same time. Itâs less than an hour so that tells you how fast it takes anyone to complete it. My sons class had about 450 students in it and maybe 10 people showed up to that workshop so itâs very low attendance. I didntâ know what it was but now 6 years later itâs even easier. The college counselors should know about fafsa, afterall theyâre sent so much information about that as well. And in our state itâs required that every senior fill it out or waive the requirement if they want to graduate starting this year, so if they didnât know about it before, they better know about it now since every senior in the state is in the same boat and need to be advised by their schools of this requirement.
In any case, Iâm still blown away that people would fall for scam artists charging for it. I understand if itâs with other financial planning and thatâs different. Also people who say they can get financial aid because they know how to tweak things ,but that then is just legally wrong. Either way, glad no one will be able to charge for it. What they really need to do is get rid of college boards ability to charge for the CSS.
Yes, I am serious. Enough people do it that itâs a fairly well known practice (at least within the CC community). No, not everyone just goes to the FAFSA website directly to apply.
for newbies, I think the FAFSA is rather intimidating. people pay all the time for services they donât want to do or know how to do: house cleaning, taxes, backyard dog scooping/walking etc. So why not âtrust the expertâ to fill out the FAFSA and get better result? Truly there are so many people who just donât know what it is, including my neighbor. Iâm on her speed dial!
Yes, I guess I can understand that. There are plenty of things I would rather pay someone to do than do myself especially because they do a much better job than me, or because either I am completely unwilling to do it, or because I donât know how. ie mow the lawn, shovel snow, clean my house! I cleaned my house at the beginning of covid when we didnât let anyone in here for a few months and it was the hardest work ever and I was not only so slow, I was awful at it. Cheaper for me to pay someone else who does a better job and more efficient. So I guess that makes sense.
Finances are very intimidating to some people. Just look how many with taxes that could be done accurately on the back of a napkin pay a tax service to file every year. I used to have people bring me their info to fill out their 1040EZs for them back in the old days when it was all paper file only. H&R Block was charging them something insane like $70 to do them. I only charged $10.
Yes, sometimes I do forget about that and take for granted my financial background. If itâs anything biology related, forget it, I have others to ask for that!
