FAFSA question

Paying for College
1

<p>My mom apparently assumes that if I have ANY money in the bank that I won't qualify for financial aid at all (if you hadn't guessed already, she has NEVER done this kind of thing before) and seems to FALSELY believe that I need to lie and put in $0 for the line "As of today, what is your total current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts?" in order to even qualify.</p>

<p>My mom is 100% wrong, right, and I could get in huge trouble for lying (which is why I'm going to enter how much I have in my savings and checking accounts despite what she says)?</p>

2

<p>There’s a formula the FAFSA uses. You can see it here: <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You shouldn’t lie, but how much impact your money in the bank has on the EFC calculation depends on how much money it is.</p>

<p>You can also run your numbers through an online FAFSA calculator. This one is from the CollegeBoard website: [EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)</p>

3

<p>Tell your mom that I have run the CollegeBoard calculator both years that I’ve filed the FAFSA, and the results were exactly the same to the dollar.</p>

4

<p>It is okay, before filing, to pay any bills due, etc to minimize the amount you have to declare</p>