<p>KKhv, from here: [FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/faq014.htm]FAFSA”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/faq014.htm)</p>
<p>If I want to apply to more than ten schools, what do I do?
You can only select up to ten schools at a time to receive your application information. Once you receive the processed Student Aid Report (SAR), you can:
Select Add or Delete a School Code and add more schools by submitting a correction to your FAFSA information.</p>
<p>Haven’t finished yet. My dad’s getting our tax return within two weeks so at least I’ll finish almost two months before my school’s deadline.</p>
<p>Question: Does the FAFSA seem way shorter this year than last year’s? I just remember spending like two days on the FAFSA last year, and this year I basically did everything in ten minutes. I’m just waiting on a couple of numbers from the 2009 tax return.</p>
<p>N and M’s mom–Income drives the process much more than assets. What the others are telling you is accurate about the percentage of each that is expected to be contributed. Use up your 529’s year 1, that will increase your need in succeeding years…</p>
<p>I completed my FASFA and CSS Profile.</p>
<p>I just submitted the FAFSA for my twins, with much cursing and dredging about in the file cabinet, and of course, many wild estimates. Then I realized that I had put the wrong code numbers in for Brown and Columbia. </p>
<p>Who knew there was a Brown college? The clue was the miserable graduation and retention rate printed on the receipt.</p>
<p>I think I found the right numbers (why does Columbia’s start with an E?) but have to wait for it to be processed to correct it.</p>
<p>GW, I know it wasn’t funny, but that is a very funny way of finding out about Brown!! Chuckling!</p>
<p>I find the publicity of those graduation rates and retention rates, new this year on the FAFSA, to be VERY interesting. Those are stats to which students and families really should pay attention.</p>
<p>My parents didn’t get their tax stuff yet. Can I get started on the application anyways?</p>
<p>How long does it take to get your SAR (Student Aid Report)? One of my children is applying to more than 10 schools so I need to add that.</p>
<p>@radimom, I like the graduation/retention rates too. Very interesting. I wish they specified whether it is a 6 year or a 4 year graduation rate. I imagine the retention rate refers to Freshman retention.</p>
<p>^ I think it took 2 days to get our SAR for our first FAFSA. It took a day for the second FAFSA with the new schools on it to get processed.</p>
<p><star> … YES, you can do the fafsa anyway and make sure to check where it says 'will be doing your taxes" or whatever it actually says…indicating that you will use the figures you have from last years taxes and then update with your current figures asap.</star></p>
<p>…thats what I did ;-)</p>
<p>NandM’smom, I don’t know if it is good advice to use up your 529 the first year. we have a 529 for D and we divide the total amount over the four years, making up the difference with stafford loans, and the Parent plus loan and discretionary money, savings, etc. There is no guarantee that you will receive more aid in the future. I would rather have the money in the 529 so that I know how it will go in the future years rather than get caught with nothing left.
BTW, we still contribute to the 529.</p>
<p>I was also wondering about using up the 529 year one. It seems better to spread it out over the 4 years to get the tax benefit spread out and also if there are mutual funds, etc. being dipped into – it may be better to spread those capital gains out over 4 years as well. I think at this point our strategy is to take some from each “pot” (IE: 529, mutual fund savings, unsub. loan for student) each year.
Re: continuing contributions to 529’s – while we will still be contributing to our younger childrens 529’s, I hadn’t really thought about continuing to contribute to the plan of our D who will start college this fall. I think that I was planning on putting the money that is currently going into 529 monthly, directly into tuition payments. Any thoughts on if there is benefit to doing one over the other?</p>
<p>The benefit would be any State tax break you get on your contributions. You would have to figure out if the tax break would offset any additional costs you might incur. There was a poster the other day who was putting money in a 529 account in December to get a State tax savings and was going to withdraw in January to pay tuition. In her state her bank had a 529 account and it was possible to deposit and withdraw that soon (I don’t think I could in my state, but have not looked into it).</p>
<p>The other thing to take into consideration is any other tax benefits you might be eligible for. For instance the education tax credits. You cannot used the same qualified education expense to ‘double dip’ in tax benefits. So you cannot use the same expense to make a tax free 529 account withdrawal and to qualify for a tax credit. A $1000 tax credit is an actually $1000 reduction in your taxes (as opposed to taxable income). I actually do an excel spread sheet to compare options and make sure we get the best all round tax benefits.</p>
<p>Finished it yesterday.
EFC is 0. </p>
<p>Of course, if I am accepted by the private that I am applying for transfer, I expect an EFC under their Institutional formula of some sort. I’m just curious as to what it might be. We’ll see.</p>
<p>Should parents report the “university student grants and scholarship aid” the student received in 2009 to the IRS in the AGI?
Is this the rule or there are exceptions?
See FAFSA lines 44d and 92d.</p>
<p>No. Parents don’t include student aid in their AGI. If any portion of scholarships/grants are taxable income (generally if used to pay for anything other than tuition/fees and required books) then they are taxable income to the student, not the parent. If the student’s total income including the taxable scholarships/grants is over the amount where they are required to file a return then they must file a return and the scholarships/grants will be included in the student’s AGI. </p>
<p>If the student does file a return and taxable scholarships/grants are included in their AGI then they report the amount of scholarships/grants in 44d so that the EFC formula can deduct these from the student AGI so that it does not affect the EFC.</p>
<h2>I don’t understand this FAQ!@!!@</h2>
<p>If I want to apply to more than ten schools, what do I do?
You can only select up to ten schools at a time to receive your application information. Once you receive the processed Student Aid Report (SAR), you can:
Select Add or Delete a School Code and add more schools by submitting a correction to your FAFSA information.</p>
<h2>TIP: If you make further corrections after adding the new schools, the schools you removed from the original list will not receive these corrections.</h2>
<p>applied 10 colleges first, and now i need to apply for rest three colleges.
but since my parents don’t have 2009 tax return, i used estimated numbers from 2008’s
therefore i need to make some changes later.</p>
<p>So I don’t know what to do.
The TIP says schools removed will not receive it.
Since I am still not done with my first 10 colleges,
should I wait until my parents get 2009 tax report and finish first 10</p>
<p>AND THEN add/delete the colleges?
or what…im so confused HELP PLZ</p>
<p>The first 10 school will not receive and corrections or changes you make. They will receive your estimated figures.</p>
<p>So now you go in and delete the first round of schools to which you submitted those estimated figures and add in the rest of the schools. Send them the estimated numbers.</p>
<p>If you go in later and do a corrected FAFSA after you’ve completed your taxes, you’ll have to send the corrected FAFSA to the first 10 schools again by following the same delete/add process.</p>
<p>As far as I know you just delete schools AFTER you get notice that your first Fafsa was processed. You add the new schools. This means you now have a Fafsa 1 (F1) and F2.</p>
<p>After your parents file taxes and you are ready to make corrections, you make them on F1. Now you have an F3 (the fafsa with the corrections for your first 10 schools). Once you get notice that it was processed, you make corrections to F2, and you will end up with a F4. Now you have 4 versions of your fafsa for anywhere from 11 to 20 schools you want to receive your fafsa information. I hope this was clear and I am correct. If not, someone else will chime in.</p>
<p>Cross posted with rentof2.</p>
<p>I completed mine a few days ago…something about the Perkins loan being so selective that usually only the first few (how ever many) in each school get it, so I apply early. I was also pleasantly surprised to note that there was no * next to my EFC number this year. (no verification this year)</p>