<p>Jumaadj ... So wont you get a full ride since you had no income?</p>
<p>Everyone.. My daughter is a HS Jr and decided yesterday to go on and graduate a yr early this summer with 2 online courses. She already had Joint Enrol. Admission to Oglethorpe Univ for Fall. The Admissions officer said she could do early admissions in Fall as Freshman and would be eligible for merit scholarships but we would need to do FAFSA.</p>
<p>Here are my questions.. As the mom... I did not have a job last year and made $0. Ex-husband is non-existent. We live with my parents currently. I understand that as I made $0 I do not need to file IRS. When I file FAFSA will they reject my daughter's application or will I have to prove or send a letter saying I did not work? Anyone have any insight on this? And GOOD NEWS.. I start a new job May 15th but I know it doesnt affect 2005 info for FAFSA. </p>
<p>ANY INFO WOULD BE GREAT! THANKS1</p>
<p>Hi Mom -- </p>
<p>You might want to start another thread instead of adding on to this one -- you might get some more help.</p>
<p>One of the problems with doing the FAFSA this late in the game is that much of the grant money is gone -- and that is what helps out those with the lowest EFC (expected family contribution). Oglethorpe lists January 12th as the deadline for financial aid documents, so you might check with them at this point. </p>
<p>First, some quick answers. You do not have to file taxes to fill out the FAFSA. The FAFSA will ask you if you had to file, you answer no and then proceed to answer the rest of the questions. When it asks for your income, answer no. Unless you have some assets that you earned money on, the questions should be pretty straightforward for you. do it today!!! the sooner the better. </p>
<p>with $0 in income, the FA office at your daughter's school will probably have you submit verification information (wait until they ask). The main question they will want answered is "how did you support yourself and your daughter".</p>
<p>low income (or no income) and an EFC of $0 does not mean a free-ride. Your daughter will be eligible for a pell grant, but other state and federal grants may have already been disbursed. </p>
<p>What type of merit aid will she qualify for? The school states that the cost for a commuter student would be $22,400 just for tuition and fees. Pell Grant are a maximum of $4050. You school can decide to give you tons of loans and does not have to meet the total demonstrated need.</p>
<p>Fill out the FAFSA, talk to the FA office at the school and then post back on the board in a new thread and let us know what they say.</p>
<p>You daughter may find that waiting a year to graduate may be necesary to pay for college.</p>
<p>HSMOM.. THANK YOU FOR THE INFO! Oglethorpe admission officer is soo helpful and told us yesterday if we filed FAFSA he would have the info within 72 hrs and could tell us amount we could get then. So getting started today. My daughter has a friend that is a Freshman there now. He was given the full amount for tuition and housing and his family had decent income and his grades werent as good as my daughters. So fingers crossed! and we are not going the loan route. THANKS FOR THE INFO!</p>
<p>great info MOM -- it sounds like the FA office is the best place for you to go with info. they seem like they are going to really help you out.</p>
<p>some questions to ask them -- are the awards merit or financial based and are the merit awards renewable.</p>
<p>Merit awards are better than financial based ones, because it won't matter what salary you make. you want them to be renewable -- just make sure you know the conditions of renewal so that your daughter can meet those conditions.</p>
<p>Also -- if she gets full tuition, fees, books and room and board, she can do internships in the summer or other neat things. There are additional scholarships for study abroad opportunities, so have her check those out, too.</p>
<p>My EFC was 0 so they dont expect me to contribute any cash. Hopefully I can do work study and get the loans out of the way.</p>
<p>Well i go to long Island University and i recently had a problem with my fafsa and i had to do this fafsa verification and the lady wanted to know why my parents file seperatly and head of household well the thing was that my parents both are the head of their own household but she said i coudnt do that so i ammended my mom to be married filling seperatly and left my dad and she said i have to change my dads to now im in a situation b.c. my parents are going to owe 3000$ or so, to the irs and i dont get that much in financial aid...now i just want what the rules are for this stufff...because the financial aid ladies were being extremely nasty and i thynk they just dont wanna go through the completion process...ugh...P.S. do u have to be 23 to file for independant status</p>
<p>What your parents did was wrong. If they are still married they cannot file head of household status. They should have filed, married filing separate.</p>
<p>According to the IRS: Head of household is as follows:</p>
<p>Head of Household
You may be able to file as head of household if you meet all the following requirements.
1. You are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
3. A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school). However, if the qualifying person is your dependent parent, he or she does not have to live with you. See Special rule for parent, later, under Qualifying Person.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e2164%5B/url%5D">http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e2164</a></p>
<p>
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now i just want what the rules are for this stuff
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</p>
<p>The college is required to verify your financial aid information against your parents filed tax returns. When the FA saw the returns and both parents filing head of household along with other identifying information, they immediately knew your parents cheated on their tax forms and got caught (I am sorry if this sounds harsh but that is what they did) </p>
<p>Your parents will have to file new tax forms and pay whatever back taxes, penalties to the IRS. You are not going to get FA unless you file a corrected FAFSA and your parents submit corrected tax forms.</p>
<p>
[quote]
P.S. do u have to be 23 to file for independent status
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</p>
<p>No , you must be 24 years old to be considered an independent student.</p>