<p>currently i live with my mother and stepfather</p>
<p>my mother makes absolutely nothing, she's a stay at home mom (<3)</p>
<p>and my stepfather makes about 120k/yr as a boss of something for the highway department.</p>
<p>currently my EFC is about 18k (i have a college bound twin brother)</p>
<p>my father however, makes less than half of what my stepfather makes. when i filled out the fafsa4caster with my fathers info, my EFC was about 5000. next year i'll be "moving in with him" so I can use his information for the FAFSA. but a bunch of guidance counselors i talked to have told me to change it to his information right now for the 2009-2010 school year. can i do this? wouldn't an EFC dropping from 18k to 5k be a red flag?</p>
<p>Not legal and probably would be a big red flag since you currently have a different address! You have to file FAFSA with your custodial parents info:</p>
<p>You would be committing fraud - never a good idea and especially not recommended when dealing with the federal government. I am very surprised your guidance counselors would suggest you do this. FAFSA requires that you report the prent you lived with the most in the 12 months before you filed FAFSA</p>
<p>
That is your Mom and Stepdad.</p>
<p>I am not a financial aid officer but imagine if I were one then I would think such a large drop in the EFC would be a big giant red flag.</p>
<p>oh please, plenty of people do what i’m doing and get away with it. i’m just wondering if it would be safe to do for this upcoming year.</p>
<p>it’s messed up how the FAFSA works, my stepdad is not willing to drop a dime on my education, and my mother makes nothing… i have to do what i have to do to get an education. and emancipating myself right now is obviously not an option.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, i’m aware of the text you quoted, which is what i’m trying to say to my mother</p>
<p>Does your father plan to contribute to your college expenses?</p>
<p>How is the twin brother paying for college?</p>
<p>Are you saying that your stepdad married a woman with two boys,</p>
<p>deducts them as dependents on his tax return, and refuses to</p>
<p>help with college costs?</p>
<p>Are there circumstances preventing him from doing so?</p>
<p>As for changing FAFSA, do not change anything until you have talked to a financial aid officer at</p>
<p>your prospective college to get their guidance.<br>
I would suggest you move in with your father and commute to the closest community college or, if affordable, state college, if they are still taking applications.</p>
<p>there are circumstances, which are private. and it would probably be best for me not to post it on the internet. we did talk to a finaid officer from my school of choice.</p>
<p>OP is not interested in further info, but I will offer it for anyone else interested in this sort of situation …</p>
<p>A parent I have been working with is still paying off this year’s costs because she lied on her daughter’s FAFSA. When she made a change to her information mid-year, the file was selected for verification (that’s common when a large change in EFC happens). She made the change after the first semester disbursement but before the second semester disbursement. As a result, the student could not receive her 2nd disbursement until she was verified. Long story short, the info provided the first time had been false & her EFC changed from Pell eligible to very-not-Pell-eligible. She had to repay all the aid that was paid to her the first term, because the truth had been discovered. She had received Pell, ACG, SEOG, and subsidized Stafford that she was not actually eligible to receive. The mom was mad that we “took away” the aid … but her daughter was not entitled to it … she had received it based on false information. I had no choice but to return the funds & the student owed the school a lot of money.</p>
<p>Perhaps some lie & get away with it. I wouldn’t suggest that … wrong is wrong regardless of whether or not you get caught … and getting caught can be a real pain in the bank account.</p>
<p>Yes–don’t lie about this. It could get you in a lot of trouble, and it’s wrong. It’s better to actually move in with your dad for a year and then go to college. Maybe take a gap year, earn some money or something like that?</p>
<p>The FAFSA includes the following warning on the front: </p>
<p>WARNING: You must fill out this form accurately. The information that you supply can be verified by your college, your state, or by the U.S. Department of Education.
You may be asked to provide U.S. income tax returns, the worksheets in this booklet and other information. If you can’t or don’t provide these records to your college, you may not get Federal student aid. If you get Federal student aid based on incorrect information, you will have to pay it back; you may also have to pay fines and fees. If you purposely give false or misleading information on your application, you may be fined $20,000, sent to prison, or both.</p>
<p>stephenn, I can’t help but note the “NYU 2013” under your name. NYU is pretty notorious for gapping students – and I actually have a little bit of familiarity with their policies. Basically, if your EFC were to drop from $18K to $5K, the most likely scenario is that NYU would increase the parent loan part of your financial aid package by $13K. So as a practical matter… unless you are one of the tiny fraction of NYU students who are given “Presidential Scholarships” – you aren’t really likely to benefit. (Your mom can borrow the same amount of the PLUS loan no matter whether NYU decides to call it “aid” or not – since PLUS loans can be used to cover EFC’s).</p>
<p>I agree with all the statements above, but I am adding in the fact that its a waste of time to think a lower EFC is going to get you much more aid at NYU in any case. They give you what they give you, and if you push and plead and “negotiate” and appeal, they might add $1000 or $2000 at most to your grant… but that’s it.</p>
<p>Would he be better off if his mother had not remarried, I wonder. I agree that the OP should not post identifying details, but it makes one wonder, really, why his mother married someone who didn’t think about college expenses of his new spouse’s children.</p>
<p>It could make a difference if the $5000ish on the FAFSA moves the kid into the PELL eligible area. Not only would the kid be PELL grant eligible, but also possibly eligible for other government programs like TAP or SMART, and whatever else the college may have.</p>
<p>I know many divorced families who configure the custodial parent to their advantage for financial aid. If the parents live in the same high school district, and the kid is going back and forth equally to both homes, it may not be any big deal for verification purposes who is named the custodial parent. However, if the way you are living your life clearly indicates that one parent is custodial, you can run into trouble. Especially since you already selected the parent before you realized the ramifications. If I saw that change, I would flag it if I were a fin aid officer, but I don’t know how these thing actually work.</p>
<p>However, you now have time to sit and work out who will be your custodial parent for next year. Make your dad’s place your home address on all documentation, make sure you are living there as much as you are at your mom’s. Make sure you run the numbers to see if it is worth doing this. If you are living at college for most of the year, it is easier to make the parent of choice custodial.</p>
<p>Mom4college, most people don’t think of these things for college. Really, few people know how FAFSA works. It makes sense that the two biological parents’ incomes should be used for financial aid calcs, if they are still legally in the picture (I’m not including situations like adoption). So two people get married and figure that he is responsible for his kids’ college as he is responsible for their child support, and that she is responsible for hers, along with the other parent that each kid has. Instead, it’s the custodial plus spouse, even if they are eking by and the other parent is a billionaire who isn’t giving squat. Yeah, in a situation like that, a kid could be eligible for PELL under FAFSA! Doesn’t make sense, and until you get into the system, it is not widely known.</p>
<p>Mom4college, why so down on the step? I’m not thinking stepdad is the bad guy here, or that there are any bad guys other than the wacky FA system we all live with. Stepdad does work to support mom and the kids, $120K is hardly a fortune, and if anyone needs to help with expenses perhaps the mom could get a job and contribute her paycheck since they obviously are managing on one income. Or the biological dad could get a second job. </p>
<p>I know many parents who don’t save or contribute much to their kids’ college educations… bascially it’s a gift, not a right!</p>
<p>sk8rmom, sorry for being negative toward the step! I was pretty much thinking aloud. Without more specifics, this is just speculation, ya know?</p>
<p>I wonder if the OP’s dad takes the dependent deduction or the stepdad and mom. Does that change the picture any?</p>
<p>Whatever the case, there is so much we don’t know about this family’s situation! Other than, had the mom not married, OP would probably have a 0 EFC.</p>
<p>I am going to stop reading the FA thread. I swear it makes my blood boil. Too many posters who want to cheat the system while my taxes continue to rise.
The OP lives with his mother and stepfather. Period. If he physically moves to his Father’s then he can change his FAFSA in the following year.
Don’t even bother with the “everybody does it and I have to do what I have to do to get an education.”<br>
Perhaps I should divorce my spouse to make my situation better. After all he is the big money earner in our family and my kids should be able to cheat the system since everybody does it.
Okay rant over.</p>
<p>Who takes the deduction for tax purposes doesn’t matter for FAFSA because the IRS doesn’t require it to be the custodial parent. In fact, some divorce agreements stipulate that Dad pays child support and is entitled to the deduction for X years and mom takes the kids. For FAFSA custody alone matters, or amount of support in the case of equal joint custody. It would be alot easier for many kids if the FAFSA worked like tax filing, huh?</p>
<p>ebeeeee: No one here on CC encouraged this student to falsify his documents. The OP is a young person trying to figure out the not-always-straightforward FA rules. </p>
<p>I have read threads before about divorcing for “convenience” but when it was broken down, it did not seem all that convenient financially.</p>