Do they see previous years' income?

Paying for College
1

<p>Just wondering. Or do colleges just take that year into consideration?</p>

2

<p>Depends on the school. In both of my kids' cases, we were asked to send TWO previous years of income tax returns as part of the financial application process...so yes...they saw the previous year.</p>

3

<p>A school that only uses FAFSA will only see the previous year - for 2009-2010 applications that would be the 2008 income.</p>

<p>Schools that require more than FAFSA will often require the previous 2 years - so 2007 and 2008 for the 2009-2010 applications.</p>

4

<p>Swimcats...I think it is school dependent. My daughter applied to a FAFSA only private university that required the submission of TWO years worth of tax returns, not just one. They had NO other financial aid application...no school form and no Profile. Just the FAFSA and two years of tax returns.</p>

5

<p>I've just started filling out the Profile for the 2009 school year and one page seems to be asking for both 2007 and 2008 AGI. More details as I go through the process.</p>

<p>Oh and for student income, I thought I saw a question about expected (2009!) income. That was a surprise. Will confirm all this when I can.</p>

6

<p>Thumper - my bad then. I would guess that schools that do that would use the additional years income information somehow for their own institutional aid. Any federal aid would be based on FAFSA information which is only the one year's income.</p>

<p>So many differences between the schools. Just as I think I understand I find out I don't.</p>

7

<p>Vballmom, you are correct - the Profile asks for 2 years prior and next year's expected income. It also asks how much the parents plan to pay for college - my personal favorite question. If I put 0 or even $5000, where does that get me?! I always grumble a lot when I fill it out. So much to think about! It does help to keep last year's handy - it certainly made it easier when I had to write down info for all of our cars (make, model, year, how much we paid, how much it's worth). Yeesh, the questions some schools ask on the Profile!</p>