<p>Whilst filling out the FAFSA, it said that I had the option to skip over my mother's income and assets, because I am assuming her income is low. Even though it says that this will not affect my financial aid, is this really true? If I skip the assets part I am skipping over calculating my EFC, etc correct? Will this be a negative to skip seeing as my mother doesn't exactly know the answers to all of the questions dealing with her assets and income or am I okay? Also why is that I heard that the FAFSA takes hours to do, but it only took about 30 minutes? Am I not done with it, or was this just a myth to get students and parents worried, lol?</p>
<p>I don’t understand why you would have the option to skip over her income. If you don’t put her income how would FAFSA know the income is low? Unless you answered yes to one of the dependency questions you would have to enter her income.</p>
<p>I have never though FAFSA was that difficult or time consuming. The most time consuming thing is assembling the information.</p>
<p>I mean it lets me skip over the assets and other income questions. I enter in her tax form and than the income with the income calculator, and than it allows me to skip over the rest. Her income is below $20,000 a year, so maybe that is why?</p>
<p>Yes, that is why. If her income is below a certain amount and she meets certain other criteria (type of tax return being one) then you qualify for a simplified formula that does not require other income and asset information. Once you entered that data and FAFSA determined that you are eligible for a simplified formula it allows you to omit the other questions (depending on your state, in our state we still have to provide asset info for some reason).</p>
<p>Alright cool. So it doesn’t matter if I skip over it right? It won’t have anything to do with earning less money if I skip over those questions correct?</p>
<p>I don’t understand your question. It has everything to do with earning less money. It is because she has a low income that you can skip the questions.</p>
<p>Lol I mean, does it put me at a disadvantage from everyone else that I am skipping over the questions, or that it doesn’t even matter because her income is so low. But nevermind, I can assume that it doesn’t matter, lol. But once I am done with electronically signing my pin, I am thru with the FAFSA? That was a pretty quick process.</p>
<p>No it does not put you at any disadvantage at all. You don’t have to answer the questions because they would have no impact on your EFC. </p>
<p>You are through as long as the data is accurate. It is fairly likely you will be asked by your school for verification documentation (every school must verify at least 30% of the FAFSAs they receive).</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom, don’t some states require that asset info to be filled out for state aid purposes? I know it’s optional for federal, but if his state needs the info it seems that would be a potential problem. NY isn’t one of them, so idk how that works or if FAFSA alerts the student to that.</p>
<p>I am from NYC, so I don’t need to fill it out right?</p>
<p>No…you will have to fill out the app for TAP on the HESC website though. After you submitted your FAFSA did you click on that link? If not, you can get there directly but I’m not sure if all the info will be pre-filled for you or not.</p>