<p>How do colleges see the family income level? Are we supposed to list it somewhere on the Common APP? And how do they take that into consideration?</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>You fill out the FAFSA, which is a free form to inform the college of your financial level. the 2010-2011 form is up by January 1st of the year, and is very long and tedious to fill out.
You will need the information that you will be filing for the 2009 income tax year.</p>
<p>It will ask you basic questions about your taxes ect. Then at the end it will ask for you to send your report to what schools you want to.</p>
<p>Its a pretty long form that takes a half hour to a hour to fill out.</p>
<p>Do not lie on the form, tho it seems tempting. They will ask you for that information later, and make sure you fill it out right.</p>
<p>Also! after you are finished they will notify you if you are qualified and for how much you are EXPECTED to pay, based off the information you provided.</p>
<p>Collegeboard offers a college expected contributed income calculator that will give you a good idea of how you stand.</p>
<p>Goodluck!</p>
<p>EDIT: One more thing, this is not an optional form. It should be filled out and submitted by March or something like that, usually.</p>
<p>Colleges may also require you to fill out the CSS Profile, which shows certain things that the FAFSA doesn’t (like the cost of your siblings’ college, savings that may be nontaxable, etc.)</p>