<p>I know it is a bit early to worry about this, but ... :D</p>
<p>Well, I will have to fill out both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile for the school I am currently enrolled in. I just opened a checking account at Bank of America (the type where you have to either have direct deposit or keep $1500 in your account at all times). If I keep just that $1500...or maybe a maximum of $2000 even during the time when I have to fill out financial aid, will it effect the amount of aid I get from my school? </p>
<p>The student needs a “student acct” that doesn’t require a minimum balance. then he needs to use his savings to purchase things for school or whatever (car, clothes, etc), so that he doesn’t have money/cash…or at least not much. </p>
<p>This part of FAFSA really annoys me. Students should be able to have a few thou in savings without it affecting EFC.</p>
<p>The student can also put the money in an account where their parent is the primary account holder. Parents have asset protection amounts plus assets are assessed for FAFSA purposes at a much lower rate than student assets.</p>
<p>With $2000 in the bank, the student would be adding $500 to their FAFSA EFC. Sorry but unless this student is very low income, that might be a nice contribution for THEM to make towards college.</p>
<p>But to this poster…your family contribution will largely be based on you PARENTS’ incomes and assets. If those are above a certain threshold, you might not receive need based aid anyway.</p>
<p>Any savings or assets you have are assessed 20% with no protection allowance to your expected contributiohttp://agplaythings.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=newestthreadsns. The same amount are assessed a little more than 5% if a parent had the asset in his/her name with a protection allowance that could mean that the amount might not be assessed at all. It behooves you to spend the money on things you may need or perhaps reimburse your parent for expenses and a parent can have a fund for your college money in his/her name and SSN.</p>
<p>You say you are already enrolled there, what was your FAFSA EFC this year, does your college guarantee to meet need? My limited experience has been that EFC changing by thousands (down), has had no affect on the next year’s aid. This probably varies by school financial policies, I feel that if our EFC went way up they would be more likely to adjust in their favor.
You might try FAFSA forecaster for an estimate, but it is roughly a 20% hit.
Agree that students should have a protection allowance for savings, it would eliminate the silly slightly illegal crime of dumping student savings into their parent’s accounts in January. A student shouldn’t have to spend their safety net down in January either.</p>
<p>Best advice, open a credit union account, typically a low/no fee situation, mine requires a $5 minimum, pays way better interest.</p>
<p>Thumper: my parents make around $38-$40 thousand annually with around $2000 in their savings account as well and i also have another older sibling also currently in college. I think I might be considered low/middle class? I’m not too sure where they draw the lines for that. It hopefully won’t affect my finanimcial aid too much, seeing that my family’s income is already lower or maybe average to begin with? </p>
<p>Jtmoney: I’m currently enrolled at USC, and my EFC for the FAFSA for this year was 0.</p>
<p>Any college advice article, sometimes on the college’s own financial website will tell students and parents to file FAFSA on a day when the bills are paid and the accounts are at a low, and that student assets should be spent down or paid to parents for expenses so that they are under the parental assets rather than the student one. Even with zero in assets, most schools will calculate a student contribution as they expect students to be working and putting something towards their expenses. No sense in having 20% of a savings account added to that.</p>
<p>The way it should be positioned, and every article on this subject, even those written by financial aid officers at colleges, is that the student can and should reimburse parents for expenses incurred from living with them, and the money be placed in an account or otherwise kept separated, even if just “mentally”, so that it does not get counted as a student asset for FAFSA purposes. IT can, of course be returned to the student. Parents are always giving college, knock around, gift money to students. It isn’t something that is likely to be focused upon as fraud, as every college financial advice guru will tell you to do this.</p>
<p>Since I have the type of checking account that requires me to have at least $1500 in the account at all times, should I switch to something like eBanking, which doesn’t require a specific amount in the account before I file my financial aid documents? The only thing my parents don’t like about that is I won’t be able to use a teller and it is paperless. </p>
<p>If there is a USBank nearby, they have free student checking with a minimal $25 deposit and no fees while you are a student. They are completely student friendly. </p>
<p>they are located across the USA. usbank.com</p>