<p>Hello,
I will be going back to school in the fall. I am currently working a full-time job making $25k per year. I have been working this job since February of 2012 and I plan on quitting this job and going to school full-time starting fall 2013. By completing my FAFSA now, will my 2012-2013 income affect my EFC? If so, by how much?</p>
<p>Your 2013-2014 FAFSA/EFC will be determine by your 2012 tax return. And your 2012 tax return is base on your income in 2012.</p>
<p>See [IFAP</a> - EFC Formula Guide](<a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.html]IFAP”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.html) for the calculation.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that I am 21 and living alone. My stepmom makes a $1/hr less than me while my dad has a steady military pension. Does my being classified as a dependent change anything?</p>
<p>Yes. </p>
<p>You will have to include your dad and step mom’s income since you’re not 24 years old. </p>
<p>It sounds like your family’s income will be too high for you to qualify for federal aid…even if your income didn’t count. Right now, your income does count.</p>
<p>You will have to report your parents income and assets of course. Your own income will increase the EFC generated by your parents income. As a dependent student, you have some income protection - I believe it is currently around $6,000 plus allowances for taxes and FICA. Anything over that 50% will go to your EFC.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. It seems then that I won’t be able to quit my job and go full time unless there is a way to circumvent having my parents information on my FAFSA.</p>
<p>frankly, even if you didn’t have to use your parents info, it’s not like fed aid from a FAFSA app would be enough to pay for tuition, books, fees, room, board and personal expenses. Even if you had an EFC of 0, you’d only get a $5500 fed grant and a 5500 student loan. That’s not enough to live on and go to school.</p>
<p>how much does the college cost?</p>
<p>^colleges give aid out</p>
<p>Yes, some schools do. However, most schools rely on federal aid.</p>
<p>Much depends on where Platinum will be applying.</p>
<p>Platinum…where will you be applying? what are your stats?</p>
<p>You should be able to request a professional judgment from the school financial aid wherein they can subtract your “prio year” income from the aid formula if you will not be earning it whilst in school. Run the FAFSA formula numbers with your parents income and assets and no income for you to see what your EFC may be.</p>
<p>But keep in mind, not all schools will fund your need or they may fund it with loans.</p>
<p>Platinum, until you are 24, married, have a dependent or are a veteran, you are considered dependent for financial aid purposes. And 50% of your personal income over $6K is used in calculating your EFC in general. So you are certainly going to have an EFC (Expected Family Contribution under FAFSA) that puts you over PELL grant threshholds. That is really all the grant money that the government guarantees. You will be permitted to take up to $5500 in Student loans. Depending on what the official Cost of Attendance (COA) ends up being for you, it is possible some of that can be subsidized. </p>
<p>Alot of this depends on the individual school, so set up a visit with the financial aid offices and ask them what you can expect from them. THough, as Somemom says, a professional judgement can sometimes be made to reconsider prior year income, there is absolutely no guarantee that will happen. Kelsmom may be able to tell you how willing a fin aid officer would be in exempting that income. Around here, the local schools will not, I know unless there is some unusual situaion. Someone working and deciding to go back to school is not so considered. The way it works is that past, present and future earnings are used for both you and your parents in terms of how your education should be funded.</p>
<p>What a lot of folks do in your predicament, is that they go to school part time, paying for their education out of pocket and saving what they could, perhaps paying their parents for expenses so that the parents will save for them. The year before they turn 24, they make sure their income is low enough to get aid, and that they empty the assets paying off any bills they may have when they apply for financial aid and go full time then. Still without the school kicking in some funds, you are takling at most about $17K with most of it loans that is available from the federal tills. But if you have a local state school in mind, and commute and have your basic courses done from part time work in the prior years, you could get out in two full years with a bachelors. I’ve seen this done a number of times. Or you can get your degree part time over a number of more years. I’ve seen many folks who have done and are doing this. That’s the most common route to go.</p>