<p>My wife filed for financial aid before we got married. She did this to keep her scholarships. Now if i was to apply would I risk her losing her scholarships. Since she filed as single and expecting to get married. I know legally i have to put that i am married. But what about her she has sweet set up that would make her college unaffordable for us otherwise. I am just worried by me filing could we lose her scholarships. Do they even ask for that much info? I feel so lost and confused.</p>
<p>I will try to start you off, maybe others can help more. It would help if people knew what kind of aid and scholarships she is receiving. I don’t know what you mean by saying she filed before you got married to keep scholarships. You usually have to file to get scholarships, and refile each year to keep them regardless of marital status. I guess you mean she didn’t want to file as married, so she filled it out as single early this year before the marriage. That is okay to do as far as I can see. Refer to this guide for info:
<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2013-14-completing-fafsa.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2013-14-completing-fafsa.pdf</a></p>
<p>When you fill out financial aid forums (usually at least the FAFSA, sometimes an additional form for the college), it is a snapshot in time-- a picture of your marital status, and income and assets as of that day you fill in the form. This has to be filed each year and each year you need to take a new snapshot with your current marital status and income and assets. </p>
<p>So she is done with her filing for the 2013-2014 year aid, which was based on her 2012 income. According to the fed pages, she only needs to update her FAFSA status to married if she is selected for verification. So that doesn’t seem to affect this years aid. If she gets money from her school, the school may require that she update status I don’t know. And I don’t know how that may affect current year aid.
[Correcting</a> or Updating Your FAFSA | Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/next-steps/correct-update]Correcting”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/next-steps/correct-update)</p>
<p>Now you want to file. Do you want to file for 2013-2014 year? then you will be filing as married with income and assets of you and spouse. That may be an event that triggers a verification for her. </p>
<p>In any case, when she files next year, her status will be married and the income and assets will include spouse. If you are filing next year same for you. But you will both be reporting that there are 2 students in the household. You may have to see if it is better to file jointly or separately.</p>
<p>Well I went through all of this just to see I couldn’t answer your question–I considered deleting this post but I will leave it in case there is any useful info inside.</p>
<p>You answered my question I think. The conditions of her scholarships i don’t know. Our concern is that she will lose them if I applied for aid. When I went to apply the person over my financial aid department suggested not applying until I got married, but now we are just curious to what may happen to her aid. She attends a different college which is much more expensive. I am sorry if this makes no sense. I am just confused. Lol</p>
<p>This is something that should have been asked of the financial aid office. If she is filing t KEEP scholarships, that means she already HAS scholarships, and filed her FAFSA with a particular school in mind. For anyone else who finds themselves in this situation, before you get married, talk to someone in the FA office and ask them:</p>
<p>1) IF I get married, how is that going to impact my financial aid package
2) IF I get married AFTER I file the FAFSA and any other required paperwork, will the marriage impact my package for that year, or will it only impact me the following year when I have to file as married?</p>
<p>For some people, the answers might be a reason to delay the wedding, but you have to know how YOUR school handles this. For federal purposes, as BrownParents states, it is simply a picture on that day. But the school may have their own regulations, particularly if they are giving you their own money.</p>
<p>The other factor is going to be whether the financial aid is a true SCHOLARSHIP, as opposed to a grant. If a scholarship is based on merit only, the financial aid paperwork may be a formality. But if it has a need based component, then it could make a difference.</p>
<p>Thanks so much I will have her contact her school and I will contact mine. We are both just really confused from what I understand is that she wouldn’t be affected by it. We are just trying to make sure we are afraid it might be a situation where it’s to good to be true. Even though it might be to late.</p>
<p>Here is the situation. What she did is perfectly fine, BUT IF she is selected for verification, she may have to refile FAFSA as married. There is that possibility that your filing FAFSA as married, which you must do if you are finling for aid, for the same academic year, could trigger verificaiton. Or, she could be selected for verification anyways. We were selected for verification just applying for PLUS. One does randomly get verified, also some schools will verify everyone at certain aid levels. I have no idea whether your filing as married will or will not trigger an auto verification for your wife. You can call up the FAFSA number and ask. Maybe, maybe the person answering the questions can answer that quesiton, but I kind of doubt it. </p>
<p>There are several issues here. First of all what are your wife’s college’s policies about this? Also what kind of scholarships and aid does she have? Are they made up of federal and state monies? Are they out of the university’s own funds? Are they merit or need based? The answers to these questions can affect the answers about whether or not she can keep her aid, whether it puts it into quesiton, or whether she is even entitle to it at all. Also is this FAFSA alone you are talking about or was a PROFILE and/or other from also filed for your wife to get aid?</p>
<p>If her college out and out has policies that they need to be notified and new forms/info have to be submitted upon getting married, she has to do that or she is getting these awards in violation of policy. She might lose some awards or all, if she reports the marriage, but if she does not, it can be a worse problem as she is not following university rules. So it is important to know if she needs to tell her university and what they require.</p>
<p>She absolutely did not do anything wrong applying for her aid as early as she could, as some awards have deadlines and some funds run out, so for her to get them earmarked as soon as possible for her was a smart thing to do, unless it was clearly better for her to apply as married. That is something that students should always do, check it both ways and see which is beneficial and what the school rules are about it. But if deadlines are involved, yes, better to get the app done NOW as she did and deal with marriage issue later, as she now has to do, if there is anything that she has to do.</p>
<p>Her school may say, she’s good, they may say she will be verified and have to change her status, or she might be veriified and would have to change her status if that happens, or they may say that school rules say she has to refile with a change in status. No telling what her school’s rules on this are.</p>
<p>In your case, at this point it time, you have choice but to file as married since you are. That makes it very easy. </p>
<p>Have your run some EFC estimators to see what a difference it will make in terms of your wife’s EFC if she should have to file as married? And any NPC for her college for the same? That is if she is getting financial aid. For merit, unless the terms of the scholarship has provisions that she has to be single, which is highly unlikely, those awards won’t be affected. What is her EFC and what will it be with married status, and what is your EFC?</p>
<p>The bottom line is if she is on financial aid, and being married to you, brings up income and assets significantly, and she has to refile with a change in marital status, she could lose some of her aid. But it is possible that she does not. But if she comes from a family with, say a zero EFC which means $5600 in Pell money, and the EFC changes with married status, yes, the Pell is reduced accordingly. Her parent and her income is what is heavily hit in EFC calculation as a dependent. With married status, her parent’s income and assets are eliminated from the scene, and yours come into play and yours could be hit up harder. I don’t know the formula for married couples, but 1/2 of 2012 income over $6K is counted for an independent stuednt as well as 20% of assets on the day the form is filed.</p>
<p>I want to add that if your wife has to refile, and if you are filing, if you have money, like wedding gift money sitting around, you will be hit hard on it and it’s the value of all assets on the day you fill out the FAFSA/fin aid form that is reported. So if you are putting off paying some bills, or maybe want to repay parents for some expenses, doing it before you file thos forms can make a big difference in EFC. I know someone who got really zinged with a $30K insurance payout that was earmarked to replace damage sitting in an account when s/he got audited. Too bad if the money is intended for something else. Maybe, maybe you can get Professional Judgment to get it exempted, but unless its for a kidney transplant or something else medical, you are taking a chance and even then you have to file forms, explain, go through a hassle. </p>
<p>But your wife did nothing wrong to date. Now she has to check what the rules are, and see what the difference could be with the estimators, if she ends up having to refile. Her college may not care, but if she is selected for verification, she will likely HAVE to refile, so it’s wise to know what the difference is. Maybe she’s better off if she does.</p>
<p>Your wife was not married when she filed, so her filing is correct. You were married when you filed, so your filing is correct.</p>
<p>Your wife should know exactly what aid she is getting, maybe she should be the one posting here. She may have a pell grant, a university need based grant, university merit grant or loans. these can change based on your income and if you are a dependent or independent student. We don’t know your details but she does.</p>
<p>The only thing for sure not affected as said above, is merit scholarships which are not based on financial data or filing status.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help and believe me. You have helped alot. More so then the person over my financial aid department. You answered our questions and we are planning on making sure this gets done the right way. Thanks for the clarity.</p>
<p>Your wife did as she had to do to secure the best funds from her college. When it comes to some fin aid funds, you have to file early for the best chance, any chance in some cases of getting that money, because when it’s gone, that’s it. So she got what looks like a very good spread of aid. But whether she can keep it is another quesition. She may get selected for verification, even if you lie low and not apply for aid this year. It’s happening more and more often these days, and if verification just means getting IRS returns through the retrieval system and she filed as single last year, that might be it…or they may ask additional quesitons. As I said earlier, my son was selected for verification and we had to submit forms that had nothing to do with whether he was eligible for the money or not and I was a bit resentful that they asked for them, but that is how it works. You get picked, you have to ante up the documentation and information. Just like getting audited for taxes.</p>
<p>If that happens and she has to change her status and she may lose some of her aid if married status gives her a higher EFC. </p>
<p>Do the numbers both ways and see what difference it makes. It might not make much difference at all if it means aid for both of you. And if it does, sorry, but yes, that 's the way it goes. Some students spend a long time doing forms both ways and making decisions as to when to get married and when to postpone it. With you, the marriage has taken place, so there isn’t anything you can do about the timing now.</p>