<p>My daughter will be applying for financial aid for law school. She will be 22 very shortly. She seems to think that we need to fill out the FAFSA form in adiditon to her doing so. We are not planning to pay for law school. She said she attended an information session at her undergraduate school and this is what she understood them to say. If we are not financing her education why do we need to fill out the form? Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Unless I'm missing something...your daughter will already have her first bachelors degree and would therefore be an independent student. I believe she would be doing her own finaid applications under those circumstances. However, I'm not an expert on the graduate finaid front (yet).</p>
<p>Took this from Stanford law's finaid page:</p>
<p>Each student's need is calculated by subtracting reported resources from the standard budget. These resources include one-third of reported assets; an assumed $1,000 in summer net earnings plus 50 percent of summer gross earnings over $6,000; assumed earnings of spouse (if married); and an imputed parental contribution (based on the Need Access analysis) if the student is dependent.</p>
<p>So, in other words, this operates exactly like undergrad aid does: whether you intend to pay for it or not, her financial aid package includes the assumed contribution from the parents.</p>
<p>It says "an imputed parental contribution IF the student is dependent." That seems to me to imply that if the student is independent, the parental contribution is not included.</p>
<p>(I want to know this, too, as my son plans to apply to grad school in a year...)</p>
<p>Me three. Ours has already applied to G sch.</p>
<p>[Edited]</p>
<p>Important distinction I found on the LSAC (Law School Admission Council) website:
"Independent/Dependent Status. All graduate and professional school students are considered independent for the purposes of determining federal aid eligibility. Law schools, however, may require parental income information for institutional grants, loans, and scholarships. You should be aware that the law schools have specific guidelines regarding independent status for the allocation of institutional funds."</p>
<p>So there you are. This is a school-by-school thing, so if the school asks, it uses it to consider institutional awards, not federal.</p>
<p>Thanks, undecided! I appreciate you taking the time to look it up. :)</p>
<p>Glad to help. The minute I looked it up, I got confused by the whole "independent/dependent" distinction (I KNEW the FAFSA considered post-undergrads as independent), so it was as much for my own edification as anything. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. I have done more research since my last post. It seems both parents and student need to submit the FAFSA (depending on the school). But it also seems most schools suggest you do nothing until admitted. So that buys us some time.
Thanks again</p>