<p>My boyfriend and I want to get married, but we are worried how it will affect my financial aid. I'm 25, so I'm an independent and my parents income doesn't factor into my FAID eligibility.</p>
<p>My boyfriend make 80k per year. He is paying off law school loans so he can't afford to help me with school.</p>
<p>We're worried his income would hurt my FAID eligibility.</p>
<p>The FAID dept at my school doesn't help - they just say they can't tell me how much aid I will get until I complete my fasfa. I tried using fasfa calculators, but they expect me to know how much grant and Stafford money I will receive.</p>
<p>Currently, my school costs me 12k per year with all expenses included, and I get 2k grant and the rest federal loans.</p>
<p>How can I figure out how much faid I will get if I get married?</p>
<p>Financial aid is based on your EFC. If you get married, you must include your husband’s income on FAFSA. If he earns $80k a year your EFC would jump into the high 20k region. That will make you ineligible for the Pell grant (max EFC is in the 5k range for Pell). If your school costs $12,000 a year, your EFC will be higher than the school’s COA and you will not qualify for any need based federal aid and probably not for any from the school. You would still qualify for Stafford loans but they would be unsubsidized. </p>
<p>An independent married student has a higher income protection than a dependent student, but not much (around $15,000 I believe). 50% of any income over the protected amount and allowances for taxes goes to the EFC. If you google EFC formula you can work through the worksheets and calculate a more accurate EFC.</p>
<p>Bottom line though - you are unlikely to qualify for need based aid when your husband earns such a good income. If you were only getting $2000 in grants and the rest was loans, you will likely lose the grants and any Stafford loans will be unsubsidized. (your eligibility for Stafford loans will not change as unsub loans do not require need)</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s the most help I’ve gotten from any source. I tried using the online calculators but they ask questions i don’t the answers to. One question…</p>
<p>I don’t mind if I don’t get a grant or if my Stafford loan is unsubsidized. The cost of attendance next year will be 13k at my school. Will I get that much in FAID? Could I get that amount in unsubsidized or non-Stafford.</p>
<p>Your “family” when you get married will include your husband…and therefore his income on your FAFSA. </p>
<p>But…just an FYI…student’s with family income of $80,000 a year do NOT qualify for need based aid other than the Direct Loan at the vast majority of colleges (exceptions being HYPSM, etc which have very generous need based aid).</p>
<p>As Swimcatsmom noted, your family contribution will jump to $20,000 or so per year. If your school only costs $12,000, that would mean you have no financial need.</p>
<p>As an independent student, your Direct Loan eligibility ($4000 additional to what dependent students get) will not be affected. </p>
<p>Is your grant a school need based grant? If so, you could lose that. </p>
<p>For next year, your junior year, I believe you would get $7500 in Direct Loans plus $4000 additional Direct Loans because you are independent for financial aid purposes. That would be $11,500. If you work part time and during your school vacations, can you make up the difference between that and the cost of attending your university?</p>
<p>It sounds like you have had these independent student Direct Loans for all of your college years. Just be alerted that you will have over $40,000 in Direct Loans to repay when you graduate…in addition to what your future husband has for law school. Try to keep your loan debt as low as you possibly can.</p>
<p>The max Stafford loan for a dependent student of Junior level or above is $12,500 a year. There is also an aggregate limit of $57,500. The Stafford is probably all you will qualify for as far as Federal aid.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that interest starts to accumulate on unsub loans as soon as they are distributed. If you do not pay the interest while you are in school, it will be added to the loan. You are looking at a fairly substantial amount of loans by the time you graduate so I recommend trying to minimize the amount you take out.</p>
<p>When are you planning to get married? I *think <a href=“getting%20a%20bit%20rusty%20on%20my%20financial%20aid%20knowledge%20now%20all%20my%20family%20is%20out%20of%20school”>/I</a> that it is your marital status on the date you file FAFSA that is important. If you file before you get married, you can file as single and that is what your aid will be based on. (I don’t think you have to update your status, do double check though).</p>
<p>It doesn’t make sense that you don’t care how much loans you have or interest you run up. Like someone said, are you learning nothing from your boyfriend? His loans were likely unavoidable and maybe worthwhile, but piling on more debt to your future family seems an odd way to go.</p>
<p>I suggest you sit down together and work out the number, figure out what the totals will be married and unmarried. Calculate what the interest will add on to your principle when you graduate. There are online calculators for that. Calculate what the payment will be each way.</p>
<p>It is really unclear what you are getting now, you are only getting 2k of grants total? and the rest loans to pay the 12k? I suppose giving up 2k per year isn’t so terrible, but there is interest too and that can add up quickly and will continue to add on the the principle over time.</p>
<p>The only calculator you should be concerned about is the one on your college website. If you don’t understand something maybe you can ask that specific question. The calculators shouldn’t ask you about grants an loans, it should tell you.</p>
<p>Are you attending a CC? Why are your total costs so low? Do you live with your parents now?</p>
<p>If you are attending a CC and later transfer to a univ that will cost a lot more, you’re not going to be given aid or enough loans to cover the costs.</p>
<p>Since you’re an independent and you’re only getting a $2k grant, that suggests that you are earning some money, too. </p>
<p>The others are right. You shouldn’t be so ready to accept loans to cover your costs. It’s obvious that you want to get married, but it shouldn’t be at all costs (big loans). </p>
<p>What is your future career and how much do you think you’ll be earning as a newish grad?</p>
<p>One thing how most people are not considerating right now is HOW FAR ARE YOU FROM GRADUATING??? If you are going into the 2nd semester of your junior or even senior year, it makes no sense to drop out of school just because of loans!! If anything, you’ll basically be LOSING MONEY if you drop out right before you graduate just because you lost a $2000 grant. People are100% CORRECT when they tell you to learn from your boyfriend’s example but that doesn’t mean that you should be stupid!! about the decision in the opposite extreme either!!</p>
<p>However, if that’s not the case then you should be more hesitant about loans!!!</p>
<p>Axa…the OP is currently a sophomore in college (see posts above). If she can graduate on the four year plan, she has two more years.</p>
<p>OP, you mentioned that you hoped your loans would be subsidized? If your family invoke rises to $80,000 because you marry, your loans will NOT likely be subsidized for costs that are only $13,000. As noted above, you will be able to take a $7500 Direct Loan as a junior plus an additional $4000 because you are independent. That totals $11,500. Surely you can work and earn $1500 to make up the additional cost.</p>
<p>The Junior/Senior level loans for independent students are actually $5000 more than for dependent students, so $12,500 a year. </p>
<p>I would suggest minimizing the amount you take as far as possible though. If you have already borrowed $10k a year for the first 2 years, then $12500 for the next 2 plus the accumulated interest is putting you close to $500 a month in loan payments once you graduate. (For the loans to be subsidized requires your EFC to be lower than the schools COA. Your EFC if you marry will be closer to $30k than $20k so if your school only costs $12k, your loans will be unsubsidized.)</p>
<p>What am I missing? Even if this student does NOT get married, she will still need $10,000 in loans, right? If she gets married, she will likely lose her need based grant ($2000), and her loan will be unsubsidized. </p>
<p>To the OP…get a JOB. You should be able to earn $2500 between now and next fall. That will cover the loss of your grant.</p>
<p>What you need to do is look at what you would get as an unmarried student. It appears that the amount you are getting right now is $2K in grants and the rest are Stafford loans with the maximum amount subsidied. That means you will be losing the $2K and the subsidization of interest in the amount of the subsidized loans which would mean several hundred dollars. How many more years do you have left? Your cost of getting married would be the $2K in grants and the loan subsidization which would probably be less $1K total. That is what you would save by not getting married, pretty much for sure. YOu balance that against what you would gain. </p>
<p>I’ve seen situations where it was clearly not a good idea to get married when students were on some high fin aid awards at some high priced privates. It would mean the loss of $20-50K in grants per year for mulitiple years, and that just was not doable, so the marriage had to be put on hold. Taking that amount in loans because of losing those grants would have been financial madness. For 10% of that amount, it’s a whole other story. Though the bottom line is that it is up to you.</p>
<p>Dont forget to look at your tax situation. As a married couple filing jointly his (your) income income tax may go down. Your tuition expenses may qualify you for more deductions. </p>
<p>Also if he works you may get benefits as his spouse that may offset some of your expenses.</p>