For anyone that has/had a child do a gap year after being admitted/enrolled in a college, did you have to open a whole new account to fill out f. aid forms? Was it an easy process? Did you find that the financial aid package was similar to what the student was offered before the gap year?
Thank you.
If the student works and earns money during the gap year, a need-based financial aid award is likely to be substantially less. If the student works and also saves money while working, it can get even worse- because both the earnings and assets (what’s left of the earnings) will be counted.
Your account should still be available (if you can remember the PIN). FA offers will depend on the new financial info.
Just to experiment, I tried to go into his college account to fill out the school’s financial aid forms that they require (not that I’m doing it yet; I just wanted to see if it would work), and the account was not active. I’ve emailed the school, but was just wondering if others have gone through this.
My son hasn’t worked a lot. He applied for a lot of jobs in a particular field this fall, but didn’t get anything. He’s worked as a cellist for two theater companies, but the pay is peanuts-less than $1000 for the year. And he spends his income on gas, phone, food, etc., so he doesn’t have a lot saved.
Sorry, I thought you meant your FAFSA account since you were talking about FA forms. E-Mailing the school is the right answer. Did he tell them he was taking a gap year? I would expect them to deactivate the account if he just didn’t show up.
Sure-they know he’s taking a gap year, and I did get a response back from my first question: When should he file, with incoming freshmen or returning students? (Answer: as an incoming freshman) But then when I went to try to access their financial aid forms (this is Penn, and they have their own forms a student must fill out), I couldn’t get access, so I have emailed them again. I was hoping to hear from others here on CC, but I guess this is just too uncommon a situation.
So it appears it’s going to be a complicated situation. I’ve talked with both financial aid and admissions. Since he doesn’t have an ID since he never went through enrollment, and he doesn’t have a Common App ID since they purge last year’s apps, I am not sure what they will do. I am going to have to wait until after ED admissions, and then I will probably call both again and/or email them with last year’s documents (letter of gap year granted; financial aid forms), and hopefully, someone can direct me how to set up an account without having a Common Application account.
Very confusing. Are there really no other parents of gap year students out there that have gone through this?
The issues you describe at Penn are uncommon. Most colleges simpy rely on FAFSA & Profile-- if they have their own forms, they are usually supplemental forms that can be downloaded and submitted separately. So if your problem is with Penn’s own online system, you’d have to find another parent of a gap year student at Penn. Perhaps you can post in the Penn thread rather than the general parent’s thread.
Why would these be done now? He is already an acceoted student. Penn meets full need for all. Seems like he would file his financial aid applications in keeping with the regular decision deadlines…not ED.
The FAFSA for him won’t even be available until January 1.
Guessing they will easily resolve this in plenty of time.
Did you want to get this done now. And if so…why?
No, this doesn’t need to be done now. I just realized I’d better find out if I needed to file at the earlier dates. However, based on the lack of answers at this early juncture, it’s probably a very good idea that I inquired now. I would hate to have waited until January only to find out I needed to have done something in December (such as open an application). Deadlines are exactly two months away. Hopefully, the issue will get resolved before then.
We are in exactly the same position, except that for us it’s Cornell rather than Penn. My D and I are about to start writing emails about how/where to get inserted into the process with the incoming class. The ED kids are being accepted next week, and presumably will start getting netids and such.
Did they guarantee he would still get FA after his gap year? Is that in writing?
I’m confused. He deferred for a year, but was accepted and deposited, correct? So they already have your financial info from last year. Usually you have to update anyway once you get your taxes done, so why not wait until then to fill out their FA form. When is the regular deadline?
Yes-my son was accepted and enrolled; his deposit fee was waived because we are Pell Grant recipients. They do have financial information from last year, and in fact, I got an email back from SFS this morning confirming that they do have him in their system, and he does have a student ID number, but he won’t get that until he goes for orientation. They have now said that he/we will file financial aid forms with the returning students (which was different than the first response I received) and thus, the deadline is mid-April rather than February 1st.
It was important for me to know 1) that they had him in the system, and 2) when the actual deadline for him was. I am much more assured now that someone has said they have him in their system. I guess gap year students are much rarer than I assumed even though there seems to be more talk about it.
So, I can now not rush at the beginning of the year, and can actually wait for our taxes to be done before filing. Penn requires FAFSA, Profile, Penn specific forms, and parent’s taxes.
Sounds ideal, sbj.
That’s great that they got back to you and you don’t need to worry about it until spring.
The PFAS can apparently be printed and mailed/faxed as well, or you can do it online through his portal once it is active. Is orientation before the FA deadline?
I disagree that $1,000 is “peanuts”, while it might not change the FA award, he might have to file a tax return and pay self-employment tax, unless the theatre company paid him as an employee and he will have a W2 issued.
http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/finaid-checklists/checklists-pro-us.htm
this is the link I found the info about PFAS on
Yes, that’s the link that they sent me this morning. I didn’t see that the forms could be printed and mailed. I don’t know whether or not he’ll have an active account in the spring. That is something we’ll have to wait and see about, but it’s good to know we can mail the forms in.
He’s earned exactly $750 (or will have, once this show is over) from the same company. He’s not worked for them before, so I don’t know if he’ll get a W2, but yes, I think he’ll need to file taxes this year.
Doing FAFSA is easier if he files taxes anyway. One click FAFSA verification, idoc is straightforward, etc. If taxes were taken out they may come back.
My kids have filed ever since they could file, not when they had to file.