Get married for better finaid?

<p>I've always been curious about this - I've heard that if you're legally married, you are considered "independent" for financial aid purposes. So what stops two college students - whose parents might be making healthy incomes but who are not making much money personally - from getting legally married for financial aid purposes (but living apart)?</p>

<p>I don’t know if that is true or not. But it is morally wrong. You would be lying and cheating the system. Then when this so called friend gets a bunch of credit cards and charges to zillion dollars and now your responsible for the debt because you are married - it won’t be so convenient then. Always think about ALL the consequences of your actions.</p>

<p>What if you were living on your own, though, and your parents weren’t planning to pay for you anyway. That seems different than if your parents were planning to pay for you but you and they just wanted to cheat the system. Do you call a couple where one spouse married mostly for money (and they both are aware of the fact) “cheating the system?”</p>

<p>Anyhow, if indeed it is possible (which I’m trying to find out), why wouldn’t schools have something in place to detect these “marriages of convenience?” Do they check to see if you live at the same address? (then again, you could even live at the same address, just not romantically involved)</p>

<p>Why is it lying? It’s possible to argue that it’s unethical, but you’re not lying at all. If you’re legally married, you’re legally married.</p>

<p>If you’re going to have to pay for yourself anyway, it seems like this might give you a fighting chance. I have no idea whether it’s possible but it doesn’t strike me as “morally wrong” - it’s not as though legal marriage is sacred or anything.</p>

<p>If you are already in college, getting married will not change your FA situation. At most schools, if you start as a dependent student, you finish as a dependent student. This means even if you get married, the school will still require your parent’s income/assets in addition to your spouse’s to determine your financial need.</p>

<p>Willful misrepresentation can be grounds for being dismissed from college, rescinding your degree, your not receiving aid and repaying all financial aid given to you.</p>

<p>There was literally a thread on this less than a week ago with a very long debate. Use the search button in the upper right hand corner. It’s your friend.</p>

<p>^ found it. Sorry, I had done a search a few weeks ago and nothing popped up - I should have checked again right before I posed this thread!</p>

<p>In any case, I’m not saying I’m really going to try this (getting married for financial aid), but it’s just an interesting idea. Don’t people do it to save on taxes since the “married filing jointly” income threshold is higher than the “single” one?</p>

<p>Yes they do but I think it’s generally in reverse - people used to get divorced and maybe still do to save on taxes. I’m not sure why people think that legal marraiges are somehow fraudulent for financial aid purposes. I think marital status is somewhat more cut and dried, although that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea! Everyone must decide for themselves when, why, and whom to wed. But, as sybbie says, it may not make a difference for institutional aid anyway.</p>

<p>I think the biggest obstacle would be it would be hard to get away with at many schools. I could see it working at a large FAFSA only, state school if both went to it.</p>

<p>The OP of the other thread was talking about trying this at small schools that use Profile. I don’t think you’d get away with it at those.</p>

<p>From the Fafsa - </p>

<p>As of today, are you married? (Answer “Yes” if you are separated, but not divorced.) (question 49) Yes </p>

<p>If you selected YES - this is what comes out - </p>

<p>The results of the Dependency Status Worksheet indicate Independent.</p>

<p>Based on this result, you are not required to provide parental information or a parent’s signature on your FAFSA</p>

<p>So go ahead and get married - you may not think it is lying, but I do - you are misrepresenting yourself for financial gain. There are plenty of young people in your situation trying to make it work. Many parents will not pay for school. But these students choose to work, go to a community college, try to get merit scholarships from a lesser tier school, or go to their state college and commute and pay for it with stafford and private loans. They are trying to be responsible.</p>

<p>In life, there will always be situations presented to you where you can cheat the system for your own benefit whether with financial aid, or at school or at work. It’s the decisions that you make during these times that make up the person you are. For me, I try to stick with honesty and hard work.</p>

<p>Just a question. Would the reverse be considered morally wrong as well. Two people want to get married but don’t because it is more beneficial to live independently and single thus getting a better edge with financial aid, taxes, etc?
Is that considered cheating the system?
So many people do that.
I don’t get the difference.</p>

<p>

Maybe for a school that uses Profile or makes up their own rules but not for a FAFSA only school.</p>

<p>Just remember that divorce can be expensive. Very expensive.</p>

<p>

There used to be people who would get divorced in December so they could file as single (two people who make about the same amount of money will pay more taxes if they file as married instead of single - the so-called “marriage penalty”), and then remarry in January.</p>

<p>The IRS eventually ruled that getting divorced just for this reason was a sham, and disallowed it. These days the marriage penalty is much lower or zero for many people, so there isn’t as much reason to do it any more. But it’s a nice example of the extremes people will go to to save a few bucks.</p>

<p>" it’s not as though legal marriage is sacred or anything."</p>

<p>haha lol. uhoh, them be fightin words</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Definitely not true at “most” schools. Most schools are FAFSA only, and go by the FAFSA designation. And on FAFSA, this designation will be changed if the student marries. Most schools only award fed and state aid, and have to follow those rules, not their own, to award this aid. </p>

<p>If a couple was comtemplating marriage anyway, then I don’t see how it would be fraud. Any more than a parent not remarrying because the step’s income would be now included, a situation which has been discussed many times here by responsible adults.</p>

<p>I’ve also worked with students who did not marry who were going to, because they and sig other make more money than parent, which would be now be counted at a higher rate. Indpendent status would actually lose them aid, not gain it.</p>

<p>Marriage is a legal procedure. Once one undertakes it, one is subject to all its parameters, for good or not. So it’s not a decision to be made lightly, for one’s own sake.</p>

<p>Yes G you are correct that most schools are FAFSA only schools. And most of these schools also do not meet 100% of demonstrated need. For some students, depending on their spuose’s income, may end up being eligible for pell/state grants based on the income/assets of their married household.</p>

<p>I should have prefaced my post to state at schools that use the profile/or their own financial aid form to give out their own institutional aid if you start as a dependent student, you will most likely remain a dependent student until you graduate.</p>

<p>In 1986, I got married for Financial Aid purposes. Now, my boyfriend/future husband and I were living together, had been dating for 5 months, etc – we were not strangers. However, we should not have gotten married. The problem was that his family was refusing to help him with school and continuing to claim him on their tax returns, even though he no longer lived them and they were not supporting him. Instead of applying for aid, they had paid for some sort of term life insurance college investment thing. They would not apply for aid, he would not have qualified if they had, etc. So, we asked them to stop claiming him and not claim him for the 1986 tax year. And they refused. And we said – “If you won’t do that, we’re going to get married, and then you won’t be able to claim him any more.” They thought we were kidding. A month later, on December 22, we got married. Our parents got two weeks notice. In the wedding pictures, they’re visibly in shock. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>And I tell you, it was probably one of the top three stupidest things I have ever done in my life. No matter what you might think, marriage is a complex legal process, and it affects you in tons of ways. Yes, in January, we got to apply for fall aid as independent students, and yes, we got a lot of aid – but we didn’t finish college, either one of us, because being married was complicated and messy in ways we didn’t imagine when we came up with the plan to marry for FA. And yes, we had children, and yes, we got divorced, and while I love my children, I know that getting married when and why I did was S-T-U-P-I-D. </p>

<p>There’s people who will tell you that it’s a bad idea in <em>theory</em>. I am the drivers’ ed film of this particular topic, and I will tell you that it’s a bad idea in <em>reality</em>. In <em>practice</em>. Seriously. :-)</p>

<p>Do not get married because you will receive less federal/state financial aid.</p>

<p>It’s true that if you are legally married to someone, you are considered independent for student financial aid – but quite frankly, getting a different financial aid category seems to be a pretty stupid reason to get married to someone. Marriage entangles you with a person legally in many ways that an 18-year-old can’t yet fathom – like Kleibo says, if this person becomes very deeply in debt or uses your name to get things they couldn’t otherwise get, then you’re more or less screwed. It would probably be better to go to a less expensive school, work part-time, take time off, etc., than it would be to get married for financial aid.</p>

<p>It’s not really lying. Marriage is a legal arrangement and people get married for many reasons; getting married for financial aid purposes is not illegal and it is not “cheating.” Think about it: why do people get married? If it were simply about love, then many people would not. Getting legally married offers a number of legal and social protections and benefits. There are many people who get married for convenience. Living together isn’t the best measure of “actual marriage” (there are many happily married people who live apart for most or all of the year because of work or whatever reason). Neither is having sex (there are many married couples that have sex a few times a year or not at all).</p>

<p>I don’t know why people think this would be “hard to get away with”. Colleges don’t investigate the reasons for marriage; you don’t have to go through an interrogation or submit proof that you’re living together, having sex and in love. All they will ask is if you are married, and if you are, you get independent status. I don’t think this is cheating the system so to speak, just using a legal “loophole” to benefit yourself.</p>

<p>But this</p>

<p>At most schools, if you start as a dependent student, you finish as a dependent student. This means even if you get married, the school will still require your parent’s income/assets in addition to your spouse’s to determine your financial need.</p>

<p>Is definitely not true. If your legal circumstances change while you are in college, so do your financial ones. If your parents die while you are in college, or you get married or have a child, or join the military and begin serving on active duty, become homeless, or turn 24, you DO become an independent student, regardless of how you started out.</p>