<p>Me and my boyfriend of almost 5 years are planning to get married. He will be graduating from college this next year. I have about 2 more years left of college. If we were to get married after he gets out of college how much of financial aid would we get to pay for my last year? Would all of it be covered or would we have to pay alot of it?</p>
<p>Unless you go to a school that promises to meet full need without loans it is highly unlikely that you would get enough aid to cover everything. Federal aid is very limited and does not cover the full cost of even most 4 year state Us. How much, if any, aid you would get is impossible to tell from the limited information given. </p>
<p>If you get married then you are considered an independent student for FAFSA. The FAFSA EFC for a married independent student is based on the income and assets of the student and spouse. The income protection for independent students is a little higher than for dependent students but it is not very high (@ $7000 I think). Any income over that amount 50% goes to the EFC. Special treatments such as the automatic 0 EFC are not available to independent students without a dependent othr than a spouse. Many independent students are quite shocked at how high their FAFSA EFCs are.</p>
<p>For instance if your combined income for the year was $20,000 then with an income protection allowance of $7000 your EFC would be about $6500. ($20,000 - 7000 = $13000. 13000 x 50% =6500). The maximum EFC to be eligible for a Pell grant (the main federal grant) is 4619 so you would be ineligible for the Pell grant. You would probably be eligible for federal loans and work study.</p>
<p>There are many schools that use Profile that specify that if you apply as a dependent student, you remain one if you get married while in college.</p>
<p>It does come down to your college’s policy on how they treat students who marry while they are in college. FAFSA will treat you as an independent student and Swimcatsmom has gone over how that will work.</p>