Fafsa

Paying for College
1

<p>I just filled out the FAFSA form and sent it. My EFC came out to $16,000. I was really shocked. I am a single parent with one child. I guess this is how it's figured. I didn't think it was hard to fill out at all. Maybe I did something wrong because I never gave them information re my bank account. It asked if I had more than $18,000 in assets. I didn't. Oh, well, I clicked through each page and double checked my answers.</p>

2

<p>The assets won’t have any impact if they are below the protected asset allowance (which is probably what the $18,000 question was about). So your EFC is base on your income.</p>

3

<p>Thanks. I think I realize I needed to put together my money market funds, along with my bank account. I guess I will have to re-read this question again and change my answer. I suppose I don’t put any figure in for my daughter’s 529. Like I said, I think I did something wrong because they didn’t ask for half of the things I thought they would.</p>

4

<p>Who owns your D’s 529?</p>

<p>If you own it, then I think you list it. If a non custodial parent owns it, I don’t think you do list it as an asset However, if a NCP owns the 529 and uses some money towards college costs, I don’t know what you would do when doing future years’ FAFSAs.</p>

<p>Maybe others can comment.</p>

<p>If a NCP owns a 529 and dispurses some of the money each year to be used for a child’s college costs, does the CP list any of that money on any FAFSA?</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>They’re using skip logic…there will be a qualifying question like “do your assets exceed x?” and then, depending on your answer to that, additional questions may or may not be asked. If you answered no to the asset question, they’re not going to ask for dollar amounts because you’re under the asset protection allowance. When you amend the FAFSA, you will have to provide the correct asset information since you made a mistake the first go-round. Normally, asset info is never changed on subsequent updates as it’s supposed to be current as of the date of the first FAFSA for that year.</p>