<p>I assume if one of our kids is at this time hoping to be a graduate student in the fall, we should put "2" for number of students in college? </p>
<p>It looks like each school decides if the graduate student counts or not, from what I can determine. Child #1 won't know about any acceptance to grad school until the spring, but we obviously need to get this filed quickly for the undergrad to receive maximum aid. Don't want to be misleading on the FAFSA, but we also want to be accurate so as not to miss out on any aid with an inaccurately high EFC if the oldest does end up attending grad school (and the school the undergrad attends counts it).</p>
<p>Just an update, in case anyone else searches for this question - we filed the FAFSA and ended up putting “2” in college. A couple of the schools told us we should put “1” for the undergrad, and the others said to put “2”. ???</p>
<p>We know for sure that one of the schools only counts the undergrads in the family but yet also only verifies that (and other) questions if a student qualifies for a Pell or other government grant, which the undergrad doesn’t. When we told them we want to be honest and asked for some guidance because we weren’t sure what to do, all they could say was they couldn’t answer our question!</p>
<p>So, we finally put “2” as stated by several of the schools - who told us to do so - figuring that if the other schools really wanted to know if one was a graduate student then they would verify beyond the federal grant recipient students. That effectively cuts the undergrad’s EFC way down (into the low 6000’s) but all we could do was go by the vague FAFSA explanation of the question which doesn’t specify undergrad or grad.</p>
<p>How is one supposed to answer that question when the schools have different interpretations but you only have one FAFSA? Wish that question was clarified by FAFSA but even online you will get split answers. </p>
<p>Is the graduate student dependent on their own financial aid forms?
I think you are better off not counting them for your dependent student.
It is more likely they wont be counted & you will get a more accurate estimate of aid, as opposed to including them, being offered more aid than you qualify for and have it withdrawn when forms are verified.</p>