<p>How do graduate/law schools determine how much financial aid each applicant gets? Do they still look at parents income to determine that or is it income of the applicant? I am really confused as to how the fin aid system works??</p>
<p>You should go to each schools website to find that information, becuase while there are some common practices, there are also a lot of uniquness from school to school. </p>
<p>Some schools rely heavily on FAFSA which does NOT take into account parental income after the student is 23 years old. Other schools will request that data no matter how hold you are (ie Harvard). </p>
<p>Most schools will take into account your FAFSA Expected Income Contribution as well as figures from their own institutional financial aid form. This will ask for assett data, income of a spouse, savings, student employment, etc.<br>
Then your calculated available funds will be deducted from the individual school's standard "cost of attendance" for that year (again, each schools figure will be different) and your "Need" will be produced. </p>
<p>Then they will take your "Need" and subtract any scholarships you have received - merit based, institutional, or third party - and try to construct a loan package that will fill the gap. Federal loans max out at 18.5k, so if there is a larger gap than that, you'll probably be pointed to private lenders. </p>
<p>You must APPLY for any private loans that you need/choose to seek. This will include an evaluation of your credit worthiness, so be prepared for that. </p>
<p>I talk a little about this here if you're interested:
<a href="http://lawschoolusa.blogspot.com/2007/02/ying-yang-acceptances-and-funding.html%5B/url%5D">http://lawschoolusa.blogspot.com/2007/02/ying-yang-acceptances-and-funding.html</a></p>