<p>Hey guys, I have a question about the financial aid: do I have to report my stepdad's savings when come to the assets part, because the savings of my stepfather's have is before marriage , is this still count to my financial aid? thank you very much!!!!</p>
<p>If he is married to your mom and you live with your mom, I believe they do need to be reported on the FAFSA. If you are talking about the CSS Profile, they also need to be reported (in that case even if you don’t live with your mom, they still have to be reported). These forms do not distinguish non-marital assets, which is what you are trying to do.</p>
<p>What is the difference? They don’t care if the money is saved after or before he became your stepfather.</p>
<p>@intparent it’s the asset of family effect a lot on Grant or aid ? What happened if you not report the saving of stepfather before marriage? </p>
<p>Can you clarify whether you are talking about the FAFSA or the CSS Profile, or both? Also, do your mom & stepdad file a US tax return?</p>
<p>@intparent sorry, I mean FAFSA, I don’t know about the CSS profile, but which one do u think is better for me? and yes my dad already have the tax return from 2013. </p>
<p>If you reside with your mom and stepdad, you MUST include the income and assets from both of them on the fafsa regardless of when the savings was amassed. This will be the same on the profile if your collegess require the profile.</p>
<p>ETA…booo…you don’t get to pick the FAFSA or profile. You have to do the form or forms your colleges require.</p>
<p>FAFSA needs to be filled out if you want to be considered for government aid (Pell Grants, direct loans). Some schools also require the CSS if you want to be considered for additional need based aid from the college – you have to look at each school’s financial aid web page to see whether they require it or not. And some schools have some additional forms of their own they want.</p>
<p>This is the warning on the FAFSA as of right now regarding filling it out accurately:</p>
<p>"WARNING: You must fill out this form accurately. The information that you supply can be verified by your college, your state, or by the U.S. Department of Education. </p>
<p>You may be asked to provide U.S. income tax returns, the worksheets in this booklet and other information. If you can’t or don’t provide these records to your college, you may not get Federal student aid. If you get Federal student aid based on incorrect information, you will have to pay it back; you may also have to pay fines and fees. If you purposely give false or misleading information on your application, you may be fined $20,000, sent to prison, or both."</p>
<p>So it doesn’t matter how it is counted – he MUST show these assets on the FAFSA. You can go out to the FAFSA website and plug in information to estimate your EFC, that is the easiest thing to do. Colleges also have a net price calculator on their website that you should run for each college as well (FAFSA is used to estimate eligibility for federal aid, but the colleges make their own decisions on grants from the college).</p>
<p>@intparent thank you so much to explain this to me , it really helped me a lot, and thank you too =D> @thumper1 And just final question: Its asset only effect grant a little, and income and student assets effect most, right? again thank you guys so much, that take my question seriously. </p>
<p>You are correct that parent income and student assets are considered more in the FA calculation than parent assets.</p>