Wondering why people with that income submitted fafsa.
Really, they just wouldn’t. No way does a multi million family hand over that level of detail.
There could have been are error when the IRS reported income to FASFA. That happened to us and luckily we were using a professional college financial person to handle FASFA. He caught the error. The IRS reported that our income was 540K which is it not. Not even close. In trying to get the correction we learned that these types of errors happen all the time. We called first choice school financial aid office to explain the situation and they were very experienced in handling this.
The elephant in the room question…will your parents pay the full cost of attendance for you to attend any college in this country? If so…you have no problem in terms of funding college. If that is the case…why is this question being posed anyway?
Ok…here is another possibility.
Did your parents happen to have an IRA rollover in 2016? This is when they move retirement money from one tax deferred plan to another? If so, this could also have contributed significantly to the income reported on the fafsa (but it would have needed to be millions…). They would have needed to manually enter this on your FAFSA.
@AspiringCS12 you should have your FSA ID number and all of the information used to set it up. This is YOUR FAFSA…and you should have that.
Right. Look at your FAFSA that was filed. What are the answers to the questions that ask “How much did Parent 1 (father/mother/stepparent) earn from working in 2016?” and “How much did Parent 2 (father/mother/stepparent) earn from working in 2016?” These answers would not have been filled in automatically by transfer from the IRS. Also see what answers have been provided for questions about parent assets:
As of today, what is your parents’ total current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts?
As of today, what is the net worth of your parents’ investments, including real estate?
As of today, what is the net worth of your parents’ current businesses and/or investment farms?
@thumper1 I do have my FAFSA ID. I will ask them about the rollover.
@BelknapPoint This is what it says on my SAR
- Parents' 2016 Adjusted Gross Income:
$2,384,192
- Parents' 2016 U.S. Income Tax Paid:
$980,905
- Parents' 2016 Exemptions Claimed:
4
- Parent 1 (Father's/Mother's/Stepparent's) 2016 Income Earned from Work:
$738,094
- Parent 2 (Father's/Mother's/Stepparent's) 2016 Income Earned from Work:
$272,000
- Parents' Total of Cash, Savings, and Checking Accounts:
$1,350,000
- Parents' Net Worth of Current Investments:
$8,550,000
- Parents' Net Worth of Businesses/Investment Farms:
$4,500,000
“Wondering why people with that income submitted fafsa.” @mom2collegekids
Because every single checklist you get about college applications says to submit the FAFSA. I can see where parents going through this for the first time would submit it because they think they have to.
Don’t submit it unless absolutely needed for a merit award. Assets and income no where near that but have never submitted a FAFSA when we knew we would be full pay.
I wouldn’t agree that growing up trading bitcoin is a good indicator on someone’s financial savvy but regardless, good for you that you obviously don’t need to worry much about how to pay for college.
As for Merit Aid, some schools (though really the minority) require students to submit a FAFSA in order to be considered for Merit Aid. I don’t think you should bother submitting the FAFSA.
The highest EFC number that is given is 99,999. So this is not accurate info.
Then why does the SAR provide a six digit EFC number, with leading zeros if necessary? As examples, an EFC of $11,845 will be displayed as 011845, and an EFC of $643 will be displayed as 000643. What’s the purpose of putting the leading zeros there if a value of $100,000 or more can’t be given?
@uskoolfish You can definitely go over 99999
One caveat for submitting FAFSA if you don’t need aid…we had an EFC that was high (not anywhere near yours though). My D wanted to access loans if necessary. Even though on her common app she checked not applying for aid, the FAFSA triggered some schools to think she was applying for aid. So for schools that are need aware it could hurt you in admissions unless you circle back and tell them otherwise. We had to e-mail some schools so they had a record for her file. So unless it is required for merit (call and check) then I would not file it (unless of course your parents aren’t covering all expenses).
Do you think the Obamas filled one out? Or any of the Hollywood stars?
There is a point where people know they aren’t applying for FA.
Sometimes schools and/or third party merit scholarships require you submit a FAFSA to be eligible for merit aid. The INFO from the FAFSA is not used, but they want to see you submit one. This rule started at the colleges that have it to ensure middle class folks get any grants they may be eligible for BEFORE the school gives their own money. Obviously won’t work like that here, but the requirement to submit a FAFSA may still stand. I’d do it just for that reason. Like I said, no one will use the info to determine merit aid, etc.
@twoinanddone Idk why you are comparing me to the Obama’s but people have said you need it for merit aid, others have said you don’t. My counsolers have said everyone should file one. I came here for clarification
And again, parents like this just don't willy nilly fill in FAFSA. We are totally in "cool story, bro", territory LOL. I know my kids HS counselors said over and over, that they were going to be filling in the FAFSA at school on day x. I told my kids time and time again that this was not going to be how it worked LOL. Lo and behold, the day arrived, and none of the kids had the documentation required in their backpacks to fill it out., shocker, huh?
At some point, and I think you’ve reached it with parents who are multi-millionaires, the idea of trying for merit aid becomes pretty distasteful, at least to me. No college has unlimited merit aid, and there are plenty of deserving students with a high EFC without the income/assets of your family who could truly use that money. (But now, looking at your earlier posts, with a 3.3 weighted GPA, it seems merit aid would be extremely unlikely anyway. Why on earth would you file a FAFSA in your case?)
Anyone who has been posting here for years obviously knows more than the average person about the process.
I can see a parent who’s never done this before filling it out just because someone at school said that everyone should.