http://www.csac.ca.gov/facts/2015-16_income_and_asset_ceilings_for_renewing_recipients.pdf
On the above chart, where it lists family size with income ceilings beside it, though it doesn’t describe it this way, while income is for the prior year, family size is actually for the coming year. Though it doesn’t state this, the only place CSAC would derive family size and income from is the FAFSA. While FAFSA does ask for income for the prior year, the only place in which they ask for family size is in relation to household size for the upcoming year.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1516/help/pnumInHousehold.htm
Furthermore, projected household size could be subject to change.
Does anyone else see the incongruency here?
I like your new word gliche - is that a combination of cliche and glitch?
Oh my. You found a glitch in my gliche!
Isn’t the FAFSA the same…income from the prior year…family size and number in college for the upcoming year.
Not sure I think this is a glitch.
I think the OP sees a distinction between the terms family size and household size. If CSAC only uses fafsa, then I think they must just be different terms for the same thing. I don’t see it as a glitch. If CSAC only uses fafsa then CSAC must be using the fafsa definition of household(aka family) size.
The thing that doesn’t seem to match up to me, is when seeing income and family size side by side, I would think that one would assume it’s for the same year. What CSAC calls family size, FAFSA calls household size, so they are equal terms in my understanding, since CSAC derives its family size from the FAFSA input household size.
It would seem logical for me to presume that they’re talking about the same year as the income was made, but they’re not. Maybe glitch is not the best term, but it doesn’t seem logical to me for them to be listing two separate years info side by side.
Am I making sense?
Irene…you are making sense. But you do realize that the FAFSA is consistent with the calgrant in this regard. Income from the previous year…number in family and college for the upcoming year.
And the Profile is the same.
It’s consistent.
The household/family size “period” corresponds to the aid year. That’s the time period schools want to know how much the parents should be expected to spend toward the student’s college expense’s. That the household size was different in the past isn’t relevant to how much should be allowed for household expenses during the coming school year.
The previous year’s income is the last full year of documented(via tax returns) income. It wouldn’t be reliable to just have everyone estimate their income from the coming July to the following June.
Okay, I can appreciate the logic you’re describing. It still seems misleading to me, as far as how it’s layed out on the Cal Grant Income/Asset Ceiling chart which I’d linked to above. I’ve gotten a variety of answers from the CSAC regarding this. The first rep I spoke to asserted that the dependents were according to how IRS defines dependents. The next rep I spoke to, a week later, who spoke to someone who’s been in the office who’s been there a long time who relayed that family size referred to the previous year’s. It was by my spending more time again on this today that I found it was actually the current year’s household/family size, which truly can only be projected.