Our daughter is now 24 yo, has not finished her bachelor’s degree. She is entering a one-year technical college program at the end of August, and has received a financial aid letter. She will be getting a PELL grant and a TAP (NY state) grant, because of her age/independent status. She has almost no money of her own to speak of.
I want to know, from others who have been through this situation, can the parents help her out financially at all with her program for next year? For example, would we be allowed to purchase the tools she needs to complete the program? Would it be considered a gift? Are there financial limits on how much money we could give her, etc…?
We do understand that she will not be on our taxes, we cannot deduct these costs, or anything for taxes.
I just want to know the entire financial situation, and what is allowed or not.
As an independent student, she does not get full tap even if she attends full time (her max tap is $3500) and she must make under 10K/year (as a single no dependent person).
While she is independent for Federal aid, she maynot be independent for state aid (age for independent students for NYS state aid is 35)
STUDENT STATUS REQUIREMENTS FOR INDEPENDENT STATUS Married The applicant must be married on or before December 31st of the calendar year prior to the beginning of the academic year for which application is made.
35 years of age or older The applicant has reached the age of 35 on or before June 30th prior to the academic year for which application is made.
22 years of age or older The applicant is an undergraduate student who has reached the age of 22 on or before June 30th prior to academic year for which application is made AND who meets the basic conditions.
Under the age of 22 The applicant is an undergraduate student who is not 22 years of age on or before July 1st of the academic year for which application is made AND who satisfies both the basic conditions and one of the special conditions.
Military Service The applicant was enlisted in full time active military service, was honorably discharged from such service, and has not and will not be claimed as a dependent by either parent for purposes of either federal or state income tax. Applicant must provide a copy of their DD214 showing an honorable discharge.
Well, she already got a letter saying she does get PELL and TAP. I’m not very familiar with either of those programs, so learning this as we go. So the $750 limit, does that start when she starts her 12 month continuous school program?
She has an anticipated award letter. While she will get her Pell, which is federal aid, she will not get TAP until she goes through th verification process, Did she go through the verification process? HESC will determine if she is dependent or independent once she gets verified. Does she live with you? Did you claim her on your taxes?
IF your household makes less than 125 and her school participates she might be better off being a dependent student because she may be eligible for Excelsior, where she would get more aid than she would being an independent student.
Question about the living with us: What time frame are they looking at for that? She will not live with us while she goes to school for the next 12 months, and we hope, never again, ha, ha! What is HESC? I don’t really find the questions to be very clear. What time frame are they looking at for all of these questions?
I took this to say that if she lived with you in the past 12 months and received support of more than $750, then she would not be considered independent for TAP (NYS aid), and whether she would get TAP would depend on parent income.
Post number one states exactly how HESC determines dependency. In NYS you are not fully independent until you are 35. If D lived with parents, received more than $750 in the previous 12 months or can be claimed as a dependent on taxes (hESC does check the NY state tax rolls) then D would be considered dependent and would need parent income and assets for state aid