<p>Hi all, I have a freshman undergrad, a rising freshman undergrad and another in grad school(we still support her). First, do I count 3 college students (the grad student was an undergrad half of 2012)? Second, I HAD a part time job in 2012 but not in 2013 - does that increase in income carry forward even though the job did not? Third, my daughter in grad school needs to be able to qualify for as much as she is able to and I don't understand if I count her as an independent or dependent - both on our taxes and FAFSA. Thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>
No. It is her status in the 1013-201 school year that matters, not what she was in 2012. A grad student is independent for FAFSA. When she files her FAFSA there are a series of questions that determine whether she is independent - when she answers yes to the one about being in grad school, FAFSA will automatically make her independent. Only her income/assets would be required. Federal aid for grad school is limited to only unsubsidized loans. There are no federal grants or subsidized loans for grad school. On the other student’s FAFSAs, she would not be included as one in college as she is independent for FAFSA purposes. I believe she can still be included as one of the household if you provide more than half her support.</p>
<p>For taxes, if she is under 24, was a full time student for part of each of 5 months of 2012, and she does not provide more than half her own support, she can probably be claimed as a dependent on your taxes.</p>
<p>You don’t count the one in grad school as being in college. Helping her is a choice.</p>
<p>Third, my daughter in grad school needs to be able to qualify for as much as she is able to and</p>
<p>She’ll likely have an EFC of 0 as an independent grad student. However, that may not mean much for aid. Grad school awards are usually either “big merit” for PhD programs or loans for other programs. </p>
<p>As a grad student, her loan amounts will be larger.</p>
<p>Thanks!! - you guys are great!</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom may be right about the support test. I came across this though I don’t know how old it is:</p>
<p>“Graduate and professional students are automatically independent. The question then arises whether they can be included in household size and the number in college for a sibling’s FAFSA. The answer is that they can, if they will receive more than half their support from the sibling’s parents during the award year. They do not need to be living at home. It is inappropriate to exclude graduate students simply because they are independent. This situation is quite common among law students, where the parents are paying for law school.”</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Professional Judgment | Household Size and Number in College](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Household Size - Finaid)</p>
<p>My son was in grad school and my girls undergrad and he was on our taxes. He lives home, commutes to school and we give at least 50% of his support. This June though, he will be done and we will lose that but my daughters only have one more year.
One twins school counts him in the aid amount, another doesn’t.</p>
<p>I attended a webinar a couple years ago in which the federal trainer stated that it makes sense to include a child in grad school in the household size if the parents support that student at least 50% … that is the litmus test. Including them in # in college, however, is a bit trickier due to the fact that they are independent for aid purposes. Schools definitely vary in whether or not they will allow a grad student in the parents’ number in college … the parent does not have any responsibility toward them as they do a dependent student … a parent can’t even include him or herself in the number in college (unless he/she is the one in college)!!</p>
<p>All great information friends - maybe this is stupid, but how does this all fit with how the grad student files her taxes? - If we claim her because we provide over 50% support does that impact her ability to get aid? Also, her grad school is pushing her to file her FAFSA now and of course while hers is easy to file - ours is not. Also, if we show 2 in college - and the EFC is $xx will the two schools divide the amount? Thanks very much!</p>
<p>The part of the EFC generated bt parent assets/income will be divided equally between the number in college. The part generated by a student’s own income/assets stays 100% with that student. NB The EFC you see for each student will already have taken this into account (i.e will have already reduced the parent part appropriately). The school will not make any further adjustment.</p>
<p>If you claim your grad student on your taxes, you will of course take the dependent exemption and she will therefore not be able to claim the personal exemption. She will still be able to claim the standard deduction ($5950 this year I think), It should not impact her ability to get aid. She is independent because she is in grad school.</p>
<p>*
One twins school counts him in the aid amount, another doesn’t.*</p>
<p>schools can do whatever they want with their own aid and their own CSS formulas.</p>
<p>For FAFSA, that’s fed aid, you can’t count the grad student as being in college. In other words, if your EFC is $6k for one child, and now you have one in college and one in grad school, then you will not get a FAFSA EFC of $3k for each and have the college kid qualifying for Pell.</p>
<p>I spoke with someone at FAFSA a little while ago. I asked the question: my son will be a college freshman in the fall 2013, and my daughter will be in first-year law school.
On the FAFSA form, do I list two students in college pursuing a degree/certificate for the fall 2013, and the FAFSA woman said yes, two in college.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I think you have to be providing more than half of their support. Are you paying for most of the law school COA or are loans paying?</p>
<p>I talked to FAFSA today too, My oldest is getting her teaching credential and masters in teaching. Even though her EFC was 0, she still got very little free money and we have paid way over 50%. They told me the number to put is 3 (for D1 in grad school, S2 who will be 4th year in college and S3 who will be a freshman). The Profile asks for more in-depth information (under grad or grad school, exact amount contributing, etc…).</p>
<p>I think the thing with grad school is if you do a CSS PROFILE, your child in grad school will not count as “number in college”. Many PROFILE schools will state this on their FA web pages, even if that child is a dependent on your income tax return that year & you provided support for over 50% of that year.</p>
<p>On the profile for each sibling they asked exactly how much we were contributing and what kind of degree they were working on (undergrad, grad, etc…)</p>
<p>I remember getting conflicting advice about the fafsa and my son…one person at fafsa would say yes, another no. I would only call back because of conflicting advice on sites such as this.
I remember my daughter’s school Holy Cross saying, you can put your son on but we will just calculate him out, because we don’t include him, Yale did take into account we paid over 50% of his living expenses etc. which was their choice. So if you include them, don’t expect the EFC of that extra child to matter to most colleges. So I included him and on his sisters and it mattered to some degree. CSS Profile was easier because they asked more pointed questions.
That said, I am SO glad this is my last year of the pages and pages of forms. : )</p>
<p>Just wanted to share my simalar question and response from FAFSA. I have an upcoming D Freshman undergrad, and a S going to Grad school for combined masters/PhD. On the FAFSA for my undergrad… for HOUSEHOLD size, it has a calculator. In that calculator it says: "Your parents’ other children if:
a) Your parents will provide more than half of their support from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 or
b) These children can answer “No” to every Dependency Status question on the FAFSA "</p>
<p>Now, if you check the “dependcy status” questions, one of the questions is "At the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, will you be working on a master’s or doctorate program (such as an MA, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, EdD, or graduate certificate, etc.)? "
So, since the answer in my case (and some of yours) is YES for the grad student, then you actually should NOT be counting as a “HOUSEHOLD” member. However, when I called FAFSA, they said that YES, my son in grad school would be a household member if we are providing more than 50% support (which we are) This seems to be a conflict from what it says here…shouldn’t both a & b above be met, it does not say a OR b!! I do not know. As far as how many in college…that questions has no other info…it just says “how many in college”. So, I do NOT see why that would not include a child in grad school. (for the FAFSA for the undergrad sibling) Are we getting misinformation from FAFSA about “HOUSEHOLD”???</p>
<p>susieqz - from what you typed, it DOES say OR…</p>
<p>a) Your parents will provide more than half of their support from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>b) These children can answer “No” to …</p>
<p>For FAFSA purposes, is the beginning of the school year July 1, 2013?</p>
<p>So if a student is enrolled in summer school through the end of July as an undergraduate, then graduates from a university at the end of August, and begins graduate or professional school in September, is a 20-year old student considered dependent for FAFSA purposes?</p>
<p>They never give clear answers, I had said No, because son was Independent on his fafsa but then they said he was in household. Bottom line was the colleges weren’t going to divide the EFC for grad school no matter what you put if they didn’t want too. I saw one college changed my fafsa and one didn’t, you get emails saying it has been altered. What I dislike is they never say what was changed.</p>