PHEAA grants can be up to about $4,000, the max for reciprocal states is around $500
re post #96 & 99: we had 2 kids apply for FA at 1 school. D was offered a partial subsidized loan; S wasnt. I’m guessing that’s because S had more savings than D? ($10k+) **does that sound right? **
we are going to try FAFSA now to see if S will qualify for a small subsidized loan, because he’s used alot of his savings since january. So even though we use the same income for both parents and kid as this years’ FA, he will report different assets this time. ** is this right? **
** And, if awarded a subsidized loan, it is granted for 2017/18 school year, right? **
@WWWard, that absolutely should not be the case unless there are significant assets compared to the prior year (and if they are in student’s name, they are counted very heavily toward EFC, as the student is expected to use them to pay for his/her own schooling). Look again at every line. If there really is no difference at all, there may be an issue with the 17-18 behind-the-scenes calculations. I am really curious. I haven’t heard of any issues, but I also suspect not many schools are actually importing the 17-18 FAFSAs into their systems yet (I am not even close to being ready to do that - still trying to get the current school year underway).
@bgbg4us , yes, the savings can definitely make the difference.
Assets are reported as of the day the FAFSA is signed (so they may very well vary year to year).
Yes, the loan would be for 17-18.
@kelsmom I of course agree. Parental income has remain unchanged. The same #s were used in Jan and this week. D2’s assets are relatively minimal and are at least on par with D1’s. There has also been no change in the overall family assets since January.
As you suggest, I suspect that that 2017-18 calculation model may have changed. Or it could just be an error. They did have a great deal of difficulty in even verifying me initially.
I guess we can see over time if others submitting for a new child (current high school senior - for 2017-18) who already have one or more in college will face something similar or not. I have of course never really researched it in prior cycles as I was not facing it then. I merely made an assumption that the EFC would remain relatively constant.
I am hopeful though that an FA Dept itself may point out the discrepancy (if they calculate too) or even file their own correction(s) if they notice something. Over the last 3 cycles, I know that USC has caused us to receive a few FAFSA correction emails, but we never really dug into them because they always helped or kept things the same.
You can actually manually calculate the EFC - I’ve done that when I questioned a calculation: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/2017-18-efc-formula.pdf .
I don’t think a school FA would notice a difference in FA unless you point it out to them. They don’t recalculate every single FAFSA they receive.
@rgosula also made a handy spreadsheet. You can recalculate the EFCs with it.
But usually the parental EFC is halved with 2 in college, then student EFC based on income and assets added to that.
Student can make at least $6420 this year before income would affect EFC.
Question regarding FAFSA ID. I’d asked S17 to create an ID. Instead he just started the FAFSA without it. I have my ID already and everything imported just fine.
We will be ready to file today. Am I correct in understanding he can file and the act of filing will generate the ID? I know he could go create one but then we’d have to wait for verification anyway so I’m not sure I see the benefit of doing that, just a delay and account balances changing.
@eandesmom Well when he signs the FAFSA before submitting, he will need to sign with his FSA ID. And you with yours.
I never tried it. We created our IDs ahead of time.
No you have to have the ID to sign. Sometimes the verification of the ID is quick, not 3 days.
Well it turns out he did create an ID last year without realizing he had created one, and so it was all kinds of fun trying to figure out what the heck he did and how he did it since he used his spam email as the account for it and that password has changed. Fortunately it’s all been figured out and it’s all good.
i have a question. or two.
we filled out our FAFSA forms for both kids, and included their college codes.
when will the colleges respond about FA available for 2017/18? soon? winter? spring?
and is there a time when we need to respond?
and - can we change our minds once we’ve said yes or no? (basically if son wants to take out a loan . … it’ll depend on his upcoming summer earnings I think)
@bgbg4us - If your kids are applying to colleges this year, then your FA package will come with the admissions acceptance (or very soon afterwards). Subsequent years it depends on the school, for us they come in May/June timeframe.
@ClaremontMom – i have a freshman (OOS LAC) - and a soph - instate. So perhaps in the spring?
It all depends on the school. Different schools will have different deadlines for returning students to submit FA paperwork, and different target dates for releasing award letters. If you can’t find the information on the school’s FA web page, contact the FA office and ask.
While the schools can now get the financial aid applications earlier, there is no guarantee that they will send FA award letters earlier. Especially this year, they might not be ready to.
All you can do is wait and run NPC for estimates. Even when the FA award comes, it is still not based on final numbers, if the school updates their tuition, fees and room and board rates in the summer or fall for example.
This is how it worked out for us for my now sophomore.
She was accepted in September, found out she got a scholarship in December.
So we knew we would be paying for fees, room, board, minus any federal or state aid.
Filed FAFSA and updated with DRT in February (school priority deadline was March 1).
Got the award letter in April with estimated COA, estimated state grant (EFC was too high for Pell), subsidized loan.
Students were encouraged to accept/decline loans in their student portal by June. She declined loans the first year.
D went to orientation in July and scheduled classes, we found out which dorm she was in shortly before.
Around 20th of July got the first semester bill (which was due a month later).
Room and board billed was the amount we expected based on published rates for her dorm and meal plan. Fees were what we expected, plus there were fees for chem and bio lab which we did not know about (based on classes she registered for). State grant was higher than estimated.
Her second year we filed FAFSA about the same time, and her financial aid award was available in her student portal in June.
She already knew her housing assignment and didn’t choose a meal plan (on campus apt).
She accepted her subsidized loan and did entrance counseling/MPN in July.
The bill came out in July, and everything was as expected.
Now we did the FAFSA for next year in October, but I’m not really expecting to hear about any aid information until spring/summer. Also her school updates tuition rates in July.
if parents married and filed jointly in 2015, but separated in 2016, mom is the custodian parent and receives child support in 2016. Should parent use the DRT tool? I assume the child support will not be included for the purpose of 2017-2018 FAFSA, right? Does it matter if the parents share one joint account if verification is requested? It is for receiving some outstanding payments.
I’m wondering about the timing of the FAFSA and CSS submission.
D2’s school (current soph) is suggesting that we file both ASAP, with a spring deadline. I’m hesitating because I know that our assets will be significantly less in the spring after several more tuition payment for two kids.
I’m sure we’re not alone. How are others handling this? Just waiting until close to the deadline?
You need to do what’s best for your situation, with the risk that if a school gives out some of the financial need money to those who file early, you may miss out.
Did you get money from the school last year based on your assets being lower? You could also pay the tuition payments now, depleting your assets, and then file. Just make sure the tax benefits are in the correct tax year (if you are pulling it from a 529 account or plan on taking it for AOTC).