<p>i was wondering if colleges have access to your bank account, like can they see how much is in it? i don't want to put too much just in case they ask for financial aid reasons or something</p>
<p>i don’t know the exact details, but i’m almost 100% sure that they do have the ability to know how much is in your account, and other aspects of your wealth…</p>
<p>my business teacher also said that you should take as much money out of your account and your parents’ accounts as possible. colleges will consider all of that money as wealth… and will base your financial aid on that…</p>
<p>FA forms ask about your bank balance. Taking money out and hiding it under your mattress so that you can say your bank account is empty is deceptive and fraudulent. However, purchasing a computer for school or a car for transportation so that your bank account is empty before you fill out the financial aid form is good planning.</p>
<p>There is a big difference.</p>
<p>To get financial aid, you need to fill out FAFSA, which is a federal form. You are required to put all of yours and your parents’ assets, including bank accounts, housing, income, etc. Not doing so is therefore a federal crime. If you lie about it and they find out through audits (because it is information from your taxes and if you lie on FAFSA, it means you are lying about your taxes), the punishments can range from no financial aid, to heavy heavy fines, to actual jail time.</p>
<p>What a lot of people do is transfer money out of the student’s accounts to the parents’ accounts. Since the government has a higher percentage ‘expected’ of your personal assets compared to what they ‘expect’ from your parents, 2000 dollars in your account will hurt more on financial aid than 2000 in your mom’s account.</p>
<p>say you had work study… would that affect my financial aid later on?</p>
<p>Work-study is part of financial aid. You are awarded it as part of your financial aid package. It can go down if yours or your parents’ incomes increase, but it’s not like they say “oh we gave you work study last time, so you don’t get it again”.</p>