<p>I have a question about fafsa and grad school. I am filling out a fafsa for grad school and am independent by their standards since I will probably be in grad school next Fall. (21 yrs old EFC 0)
My parents have 3 children and put 5 members in family 3 in school, because although I'm independent, I probably will be living home and they will be supplying more than half of my living expenses. Would that be correct?
It's a little confusing, because I am Independent for my fafsa, but not totally independent for theirs.</p>
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I am confused. Are your parents in college? Or are you talking about your siblings FAFSAs? For yours you are independent so don’t put your parents info. </p>
<p>Your siblings FAFSAs will include the number of children in college (not parents even if parents are in college). Whether they can include you is tricky. The consensus seems to be a big maybe. From responses here on CC to that question it seems that it is up to the schools whether they allow a grad school student to be included. Some school will allow it. Some will not. So I would say they include you (the grad student) but don’t be shocked if the schools disallow it.</p>
<p>It’s been a while ago, but when I asked the folks at FAFSA whether or not a graduate student (sibling) could be included as a family member in college on an undergrad’s FAFSA, the rep said “yes”.</p>
<p>My younger DDs schools always allowed me to include my grad student DD as one of the ones in college, but at least one UG university my D2 was considering said they would not count her</p>
<p>Kelsmom, who is a FAO in real life has said her school does not allow Grad students to be included. Other posters have had the same experience as somemom where some schools do and some do not.</p>
<p>You would think for federal aid purposes there would be only one right answer to this. I can see where a school would choose one or the other for their own institutional aid. But such an inconsistency for federal aid purposes seems odd.</p>
<p>I was told if I am providing 50% or more of his/her care and the child is under 24, yes. I think I called fafsa about this last year. The CSS profile is more clear, it says, “grad school” as examples of others in college.
Some colleges will “re-work” it, but I guess you find out later. Drew told me if my daughters went there, my son in grad school wouldn’t work into their calculations. (They reminded me he was still counted on my taxes though) Brown told a friend, if they could prove the older son/daughter lived at home or they provided a lot of care (not a PhD student) they would consider it case by case.
The problem for me is that my EFC is much lower with 3 in college than 2, but I have to realize I might have that EFC as the final one.</p>
<p>DD applied to two schools where we posed this question about a grad school sibling. One did NOT count them and the other DID. It varies by school. The reality is that we WERE providing more than half the support for the grad school sib and he WAS working towards a graduate degree full time. The school DD attended counted him.</p>
<p>That’s great Thumper…I wonder if it matters, public vs private, etc. I will be too providing a lot of help and will hope that the final college will help. I didn’t think to ask that earlier on, there were so many other factors.</p>
<p>Both of the schools in my DDs situation were private schools. Oddly one used FAFSA only and the other used FAFSA and Profile. It was the FAFSA only school that clearly told us that big brother would NOT count when he was in grad school.</p>
<p>Thumper1, was this something you had to call or email about, I never see anything written in the FA sections. I did put out a few earlier emails and sent a few last week. My girls have a few private Fafsa only schools and I will be curious to see what they say.</p>
<p>Debruns…we asked the question in person at the finaid offices at accepted student visits.</p>
<p>That’s a good idea, I’ve worded my question like I was talking to a 5 year old, very simple, just the pertinent details, (number of students, ages, etc.) and still get vague answers, sometimes I wonder if they read it…others are better. Asking in person is a good idea, we have a few accepted student days, will do that when we go.</p>