Of course, a student who really wants to estimate his/her parents’ finances can use the EFC to reverse-engineer ranges that will produce that EFC, using the FAFSA4caster web page.
Mine sure wouldn’t have bothered! 
My daughter’s friend asked her about filing taxes. Daughter volunteered “Oh, my mother just handles all of that. She’ll do yours too.” Thanks kid. (and yes, I would help this friend)
My daughter called one day last spring and said “Hey, someone put $178 in my account.” Yes, dear, it was your friends at the IRS who just thought you needed some extra money.
Seriously, once the child is away at school, I bet many parents end up filling out the entire FAFSA.
We never filled out FAFSA, but I can imagine the procrastination I would have seen if I had to nag my kids to fill out their part while they were busy away at college.
At least your daughter checked her account and asked the extra $178.
Well, I, for one, think we should be honest, especially when I think that’s what happens often, maybe even most of the time. College application time is hectic and I think it’s just more practical for the parents to manage this in most cases. Why make it more difficult than it needs to be?
^^
I agree. While it may not be kosher, the fact remains that often either the child (if parents don’t speak English) or the parents fill out the entire FAFSA.
It actually helps people out there to know this. Otherwise they may think that something terrible happens if the parent (or child) fills it all out with legit info.
Wow, I am surprised to hear that parents don’t want their kid to know their finances. Perhaps it had to do with affluence, we are a moderate income family at this time, and my husband came from extreme poverty, but I feel it is important for my kids to understand where our money comes from and where it goes. They need to know why we make the choices we make. Why we have to say no, and why saying yes can be a sacrifice.
When it came to the Profile, I filled it out and then my son went over it with me to make sure I had no mistakes. We sat side by side with the tax forms and made sure each box was done correctly. We also have business income so it was complicated.
When we ran the school calculators he sat at the the computer and I gave him the numbers for each of the boxes. If we get to the point where I have to tell him that a college is too expensive, he needs to understand why. Of course if you can pay without issue then I guess it is not a problem.
Different strokes I guess.
Of course I filled out the Fafsa and CSS. No way either of mine could have gotten the financial education to comprehend even the terms, much less the detail and how to interpret- especially considering the rest of what was going on in first quarter of senior year . And too much was at stake to just let them assume or forget to check some addition. I don’t consider this some flaw in my kids; I considered it a matter of their ages and experience. (And we did not help them with their common apps, beyond the usual discussions.) The FA process was not all about my kids- it was about the family affording college. I don’t see where Fafsa says there’s some illegality in this. After the work was done, I explained to each what info was covered. I didn’t go over it line by line with them.
@LKnomad I think that when income is tight, it makes sense that the whole family be onboard with “how much comes in, and how much is already spoken for.”
It’s gets mushy when a parents’ wallet can say “yes,” but parents don’t necessarily want their kids knowing that. Suddenly kids get an “attitude” about things like, “you can afford to buy yourself (or me!) a new car,” or “you can afford to take us all to Europe,” or “you can afford to pay $300k for college.”
Kids don’t always understand or see the “big picture.” They don’t always understand that savings need to grow, retirement plans need funding, and so forth. All they see is big numbers.
Heck, we see high school kids here thinking, “Oh, I can borrow $150k and make the payments because I’ll be earning $50k when I graduate.” They have no idea how much of their money will already be dedicated to taxes, FICA, rent, car, phone, electric bill, cable, wifi, food, etc.
Parent signed as student in order to file the FAFSA
I always find these threads interesting. I just finished my fourth CSS Profile and I honestly can’t say with 100% certainty that it is correct. But I only have a Masters in Engineering not tax accounting. I did find one mistake that I made last year when I compared the two forms. Maybe one day I will get it perfect. I do know that I completely disclosed all assets and all income every year.
I fall into the camp that the student should not be doing these forms without some guidance from a parent. It is just too important and complicated of a financial document to leave completely up to a teenager. It is just too easy to miss or not understand some of the questions that are asked.
While I understand the legal issues, I feel that it is more important that these forms are correctly filled out and are accurate. If that means I technically cross the legal line so be it. I do make sure that my student is fully aware of any legal ramifications and accepts them before I do anything in their name.
I am one of those parents who kept track of the PINs and did all of the data-entry for the FAFSA. Math is not Happykid’s strong point.
I tried to follow the rules and have the kids get their own ID numbers last summer. After one did it and it took 3 tries and numerous weeks (if I recall she has reverse two numbers in her SSN and because those are starred out, we couldn’t find the error and kept submitting it with the same wrong info) I did the second child’s myself. For second child, I have all the passwords and clues, for the first I don’t and she ‘sort of’ remembers. We’ll see this week if it works.
If the FAFSA is going to pretend that the child is doing the filing, it shouldn’t ask for the parent’s financial info. The system should be reworked so that the responsibility falls on the parent.
Not many kids know how to read a parent’s W2 forms, where the IRA contributions are made, if a 401k exceeds the maximum, whether Gramps is a dependent or if there are legal Swiss bank accounts. This isn’t the student’s responsibility.
For returning students…we completed the FAFSA either before they went back in January (using estimates) or during March break (as the deadlines for our kids as returning students was later).
Not all kids come home for spring break. Mine is headed back on Friday (so don’t have a lot of tax stuff yet) and has to play her sport through spring break, so she’ll be back (maybe) in May. Other one is off doing an internship this semester, but plans on returning next semester so still need to do the FAFSA. Won’t see her until May either.
Student must sign by providing FSA ID … parent is not supposed to do this for the student. the assumption is that the student will provide/review info before signing to indicate that he/she agrees with what is on the form.
Love this: ***** At least your daughter checked her account and asked the extra $178. ***** Several of my grad students asked why they hadn’t been paid yet for their FWS jobs. I asked if they had signed up for direct deposit, and they “didn’t know.” So I called HR … found out they had DD … and proceeded to tell the students to look for deposits of $x on y dates. Lo and behold, the money was deposited. I really do try to help them understand finances, but these are people who have lived on their own, held jobs, and think they know all. They don’t. 
A little off topic…but regarding Kelsmom’s post above…my kid took a personal finance course as an elective in undergrad school. He said it was the best course he took…in terms of practical value. He thinks it should be a required course…for freshmen!
And the course actually had a section on financial aid, as well as loans.
I agree with some that there is too much at stake (and so for some families, the parent is the best person to do the bulk of FA), but in some families, that person is the student. Every year, my parents give me their completed tax returns and W2s, I email them with questions (like how much do we have in savings or how much the property was worth last year), but I have always completed all FA apps myself. The language in these applications is tricky even for native English speakers (as these boards can attest to), so the alternative is trying to translate every other line. My father signs the FAFSA (and presumably looks over the inputs before he does) with the FSA ID.
And just so people don’t think it’s only the parents who don’t speak English well that are turning over FAFSA to their kids, I come from two native English speakers who both simply turned over their financial documents to me. They figured my education, my responsibility so I filled out my FAFSA every year and dealt with all the FA stuff on my own.
We were very poor though so our FAFSA was simple and EFC was always 0.
It always makes me scratch my head when parents are so secretive with finances, but maybe it has to do with growing up poor like was said up thread. shrug