<p>So what happens if there's a change in circumstances?</p>
<p>Like, I'm going to college in '09, so FAFSA asked us for our 2007 data. Well, the company my mom had worked for for a longgg time got bought in 2007 and she got a $300,000 bonus or whatever from stocks. So our data obviously isn't representative of our yearly income. In addition, my sister's a year behind me -- will this only be acknowledged in HER application for aid, since I'll already be in school, or what? </p>
<p>I mean, we're probably just outside of the range that would qualify for aid, anyways (you know, that limbo of being too rich to qualify but too poor to comfortably cover four years of private school tuition), but it's just frustrating that FAFSA thinks we can afford $9480954093785743957954705979 a year, lol.</p>
If you are going to college in fall 2009 FAFSA will ask you for your 2008 income not your 2007 income. The FAFSA that is available right now is the 2008-2009 FAFSA which is for the 2008-2009 school year. The 2009-2010 FAFSA is not available until January 1 2009. Filing the 2008-2009 FAFSA will not be accepted as having filed FAFSA for the 2009-2010 school year.</p>
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You have to file FAFSA every year. The year your sister starts school she will file FAFSA for the first time and you will refile it. When you are both in school at the same time the parent part of your FAFSA EFC will be divided equally between you.</p>
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If you are going to a private school it is likely they will also require you to file CSS profile or their own financial aid application forms. CSS does ask for the previous 2 years of tax returns (2007 and 2008 for the 2009-2010 school year). Private schools usually use FAFSA to determine if you qualify for any federal aid (which would nowhere near cover the cost of a private school) while using CSS to award their own institutional aid.</p>
<p>I just assumed my mom knew what she was doing when she told me that it asked for the 2007 info… I’ll have to tell her that she’s working on the wrong one.</p>
<p>Right. The 2009-2010 FAFSA will not be released until January 1. It may ask for some 2007 info, but the bulk of the detailed information required will be for 2008.</p>
<p>Right…I guess the big question is…where IS that $300,000 or the balance of it. Anything that is in regular savings or CDs or in your mattress will be counted as an asset.</p>
<p>Re: the FAFSA…when you do your filing of the FAFSA in January (before you file your taxes), use estimates of your income based on pay stubs, etc for the 2008 calendar year. Some folks use their 2007 taxes for these estimates and this is fine when the numbers don’t vary much. Your interest income should also be estimated for 2008 using perhaps bank statements from December. Your assets will be entered as of the date of your initial filing of the FAFSA and those do not get amended once your taxes are completed (and you amend the FAFSA to reflect the numbers from your 2008 return).</p>
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<p>The FAFSA for the 2009-2010 school year is NOT available until Jan 1. That one will ask for information from the 2008 tax year, not the 2007 tax year. If your mom is doing a FAFSA now…she is not doing one for the school year which starts fall of 2009. She should just stop and wait until the correct one is online in January.</p>