household members

<p>My stepfather will not support me anything when i go to college after this summer. My mum remarried him when i was already 18years old. Do i have to put my stepfather in the household on the FAFSA form? Does his salary affect my application for federal aid? Is he my legal stepfather or just my mum's husband and not in any direct relationship with me?</p>

<p>If your custodial parent is your mom (meaning you reside with her most of the time), and she is married, you are REQUIRED to include the income and assets of both your mom and her husband on the FAFSA. Remember, the FAFSA is computing an expected FAMILY contribution. Your stepfather is a member of your family, and is contributing financially to the family expenses (rent, utilities, food, personal expenses, etc). </p>

<p>And even if your mom’s husband is NOT contributing to family expenses, his income and assets MUST still be included.</p>

<p>Yes, his salary will be considered when your eligibility for federally funded aid is calculated. It will also be included when colleges are determining eligibility for their institutional aid.</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter IF he will contribute to college costs or not. His income and assets will be considered. </p>

<p>And it also does NOT matter that they married after you were 18.</p>

<p>If you I put him in the household and i am probably not going to get any aid. So my situation is like that my parents have the ability to support me, but I actually will not get any support from my parents and federal government. This is such an embarrassed condition for me.</p>

<p>Tian, you are not the only student who finds that their parents are unable or unwilling to pay for college costs.</p>

<p>You must put your stepfather on the FAFSA. Leaving him off, and getting aid because of that, is fraud. You would lose the aid, as well as your offer of admission. Colleges frown on dishonesty. The federal government really frowns on giving aid to those who lie on their forms.</p>

<p>As with others in the same boat, you need to consider options. First, you don’t mention your bio dad. Is he willin g tomhelp you out? </p>

<p>You can attend a community college and commute from home (if that is possible).</p>

<p>You could likely fund this with the $5500 Direct loan plus income from a part time job. </p>

<p>You could work part time and go to college part time. </p>

<p>You could work to,save money for college. </p>

<p>Did you apply to any colleges that are affordable, or schools where you might have garnered merit aid?</p>

<p>I am in Indiana and i will go to IU. It’s not very expensive. I think that the most important for me is keeping studying, so I will borrow money from bank if i can not get any aid. I do not want to study part time.</p>

<p>If you are planning to borrow in excess of the Direct Loan of $5500 for your freshman year, you WILL need a cosigner for the loans. Will your parents cosign for you? If they cosign, they become responsible for those loans right along with you. </p>

<p>I suggest you find out if you will have someone to cosign loan amounts in excess of the Direct Loans.<br>
Actually…for arguments sake, let’s say IU costs $25,000 a year. If you borrow the WHOLE amount (and yes, you will need a cosigner to do so), you would be borrowing $100,000. That is too much debt for an undergrad to take in the vast majority of cases.</p>

<p>My mum will cosign for me. And I will have a part time job when i go to college. It’s not going to be 100,000. It’s not a big deal compare to some medical students’ loan.</p>

<p>The cost of attendance THIS year is $23,800 plus. Loans in that amount (remember, costs will increase annually)'will likely be $100,000 total. If you plan to take it all in loans, will be your amount. that is YOUR decision along with your family. I’m just saying…that is A LOT of undergrad loan. A LOT!</p>

<p>Not a big deal as long as you realize the payments will be in excess of $1000 a month for 10 years if you take loans on the full amount.</p>

<p>Your decision.</p>

<p>???</p>

<p>How much are you going to borrow each year? It sounds like you’re going to be borrowing about $15k-20k per year. That is toooooooooo much. And your mom may not qualify to keep borrowing that much…and her H may insist that she NOT because he would also be indirectly responsible. </p>

<p>Since you thought you qualified for aid using only your mom’s info, then HOW will she qualify to co-sign $60k+ in loans??? </p>

<p>" It’s not going to be 100,000. It’s not a big deal compare to some medical students’ loan."</p>

<p>Do NOT compare an undergrad education to med school. Undergrads do NOT have even close to the likelihood of earning what doctors earn. They can reasonably borrow $200k+ and it’s not a huge risk. </p>

<p>How MUCH will you be borrowing EACH year?
What do you think the monthly payments will be upon graduation?
What is your career goal? How much will you likely be earning upon graduation?</p>

<p>I think you should cut your costs and commute somewhere for the first two years. Then maybe go away for the last two years.</p>