<p>The FAFSA asks for family savings and home equity. How do they actually confirm this???</p>
<p>I thought FAFSA specifically excludes your home equity? </p>
<p>My understanding is a certain number ( about a third) of FAFSAS are selected for verification. If you are selected you have to provide copies of bank statements etc.</p>
<p>FAFSA doesn't consider home equity of the primary residence.</p>
<p>Your savings accounts generate 1099 interest income statements, that go to the feds, and that income shows up on your tax returns, which have to match your FAFSA. So if you show interest income, but no savings, it's a red flag for them.</p>
<p>Profile asks for home value and amount of mortgages to determine home equity. Profile also asks when you purchased the home, and how much you paid for it-- they feed that info into the Federal Housing Index Multiplier to verify that your current valuation is in the ballpark.</p>
<p>They have ways... :)</p>
<p>Also many schools have their own Financial Aid Forms to fill out annually (in addition to the FAFSA or FAFSA& CSS) that may ask about this.</p>
<p>CMU has their own form. It is really an "application" for FA and consisted of students name, school year, TIN. Likewise for the parents. Son had institutional grant and we did not qualify for financial assistance but we did apply for, and received Unsubsidized-Stafford and PLUS loans, which the school must frank before the loans are funded and disbursed to the school.</p>