Edit FAFSA for grad school that starts June after graduation?

Our D is applying for MEd programs that start immediately after undergrad graduation in June 2016. For this reason, the schools recommends filling out FAFSAs for both 2016-17 and 2017-18. However, we filled out the 2016-17 FAFSA last spring listing our financial information and indicating her as dependent, and therefore I’m concerned she will not be eligible for federal student loans (or any school-based financial aid) for this summer. What do we do?

Once your daughter has her bachelors degree, she will be eligible for the federal loans as a grad student.

In terms of “school based financial aid”…grad school funding is not like undergrad funding. It is merit based and is based on the strength of the application and the schools desire to have you in their cohort of students. aid comes in the form of assistantships, scholarships, grants, sometimes work study, and loans. There really isn’t “need based” aid based on your FAFSA EFC like in undergrad school.

MEd? Masters in education? These programs usually have very little institutional funding. There are some assistantships and such… it nit a lot of them. In any event, they are not based on the fafsa EFC. They are based on your kid’s application strength.

You need to find out one important thing…does the MEd school include summer 2017 as part of the 2016-2017 school year…or part of the 2017-2018 school year?

Anyway…the fafsa for grad school will be submitted…to the grad school. She will indicate that this is for grad school study, and she will be independent for financial aid purposes. Your information won’t be used.

Many people who get a MEd, are usually working in the day as teachers (unless she is getting an MEd in school counseling where you cannot work with out a masters) and attending school in the evening since most of their classes are scheduled for late afternoon/evenings when school is out.

If your D is starting grad school in 2017-2018, she will file the fafsa as a grad student and will be considered independent. Your income and assets will not be needed on the FAFSA.

What does she plan to do long range; is she looking to teach? Even if she decides to go into administration, she will need a few years of teaching/ pupil personnel experience under her belt.

Where does she want to work? For example the NYC DOE will pay for Masters in Bilingual PPS/Social work. They will pay for people who are bilingual to get an ESL extension on their license. Working 5 years as a special education teacher will get you $17,000 toward your student loan payments from Sallie Mae. Working for the city/state agency (department of education) is a qualifying job for loan forgiveness.

Unless she needs the MEd, as part of her initial certification, she would be better served trying to get a job and then getting the masters. It may be harder for her to get work after the masters because most school systems may not want to pay the increased salary for someone with no classroom experience.

So do we send her original 2016-17 FAFSA or do we edit it first to reflect her graduate status? Some MEd programs do give a little financial aid, HGSE’s for example.

Why is HGSE?

@kelsmom…what do you think?

But here is my question again…is your daughter getting aid for the 2016-2017 school year? What do,you hope she will receive for summer?

Harvard Graduate School of Education?

You have already filled out 2016-17 so nothing left to do. the 2017-18 is not available, so have her fill that out. When she answers the question about the level of school she’ll be in, she’ll answer grad student and the skip logic should then eliminate all the parent questions.

Her school will know how to deal with any conflicts. If the program starts in June, they are used to students just like your daughter filling the form out when they are still seniors/dependents, and will immediately become independent graduates with a degree completes. Some schools consider the summer in the prior financial aid year, and some consider it with the next financial aid year. If her school considers summer in the next financial aid year, it will need the 2017-18 FAFSA to make financial aid award.

@twoinanddone the 2017-2018 fafsa has been available for submission since October 1, 2016. It uses 2015 tax return information.

This student needs to submit the FAFSA tomgrad schools with the GRAD school information on it, I believe. So…if the kid is applying to Harvard Graduate School of Education…the fafsa forms need to be submitted to THAT school with the correct information.

@kelsmom since the student is currently an undergrad, and has already submitted the 2016-2017 fafsa, how does she go about changing that to denote she is a grad student…and independent for financial,aid purposes…and delete parent information. Can that actually be done? I don’t remember if the parent fields can be changed.

Is the grad school a different school than the one your D is currently attending? If so, it’s easy … update the 2016-2017 FAFSA to Yes for undergrad degree, and update the degree type to grad & the answer to Will you be a graduate student? to yes. Remove the current school and add the grad school. Parent info will be ignored.

Typo. Meant the 2017 is NOW available.

Thanks everyone. Sorry about the acronym, I blame the hysteria on the grad cafe education forum. Some schools do count the summer in the 2016-17 school year which is why they say fill out both FAFSAs. She is getting certification with a master’s degree because she wants pedagogy classes, wants to teach in public schools, teaches English which has less demand, and doesn’t want to be bound to teach in high need schools. That being said, these teacher’s program are a bit of a racket because you pay for teaching/helping to teach classes rather than getting paid like for other graduate degrees. Therefore a MEd’s can be very expensive. Teacher’s with master’s degree do start ~$5K more per year but I still think she’ll be able to get a job. I feel like editing the 2016-17 FAFSA would be a good idea for possible summer aid but I’m not sure whether we can or should.

I have sat on many hiring committees for teachers. You cannot sling a cat in most school districts (especially middle/high school, without it hitting an English or Social Studies teacher. Hate to say it, but they are glut of them and are essentially a dime a dozen).

It will be harder for your daughter to get a job as an English or Social studies teacher and schools will not pay 5k more for a candidate who has a masters and no class room teaching experience outside of student teaching/internship.

In many states the masters is part of the permanent certification requirement, which is also accompanied by so many years of work experience (in NYS it is 3 years). I would definitely recommend that if your daughter has not received her initial or provisional certification that she do so and work before achieving a masters and perhaps get an ESL, Bilingual or Special Education extension to make her more marketable.

As I stated earlier, most of the course work for Masters programs take place at the end of the school day (late afternoon/early evening because most candidates are working during the day as teachers. Many teachers pursue a masters at the local college. If she is not certified as a teacher, she may also be better served doing TFA or NYC teaching fellows, which will not only fast track you through your initial certification, but pay for your masters.

She is not going to be more marketable because she attend a more expensive program (and I say this as a person who has 2 education masters in expensive programs that were paid for by my previous employer before I became an educator working in the largest school system in the country). We make the same money by license and years of service as our peers who have completed masters from CUNY and SUNY.

I feel like editing the 2016-17 FAFSA would be a good idea for possible summer aid but I’m not sure whether we can or should.


Please read post #8. If it’s the current school, my advice will differ …