<p>Hello. Myself and a friend from high-school are considering getting married solely for the benefits of financial aid. My mother (father is deceased) and her parents make too much money for us to be eligible for any federal/state grants. If we get married, our combined income would be less than $20k a year. Of course we plan on having a prenup and other documents drawn up that says finances will be completely separate during the marriage. There is absolutely no worry about a baby and we would stay on our parent's health insurance since the law allows us to be (Young</a> Adult Coverage until Age 26 under the Affordable Care Act | HealthCare.gov).</p>
<p>Is there any reason for us not to get married and reap the financial aid benefits for our last two years of college? We are both aware that this year's FAFSA can not be updated for marriage, but our last two years would still count.</p>
<p>Do you plan on living together? Applying for married student housing? It would be best from a tax perspective to file married filing a joint return.</p>
<p>I am sure that you will get a lot of flak about essentially committing fraud. For years, I have seen friends get married for health insurance, to cover up a gay lifestyle, to gain US Citizenship, etc. I guess I would ask why you think the government should give you financial aid rather than allowing your parents to continue to support you? On one hand, I think it is lousy that I will be subsidizing your education and your student loans, but on the other hand, until all Americans that want to get married can, why not continue to make a mockery of marriage?</p>
<p>Mizzbee, I completely understand where you are coming from and appreciate your thoughts. We will be living in the dorm for this year, not together. At this time, we have no plans to live together but would file taxes jointly.</p>
<p>If you are not planning to live together, it would hurt your case if you were ever to be questioned. It is extremely rare, though the IRS has the authority to do that. If you are going to pretend to be married, cohabitation would help to keep up appearances, at least to the university.</p>
<p>If we fill out the paperwork and get legally married, why would it matter if we lived together or not? What law states that this must be the case? As long as the papers are filed for marriage, for all intents and purposes, wouldn’t we be married regardless of the living situation?</p>
<p>How close to $20k will your combined income be? If it is at around $20k, you may still not be eligible for much, if any, federal grants. The pell grant requires an EFC of around 5300 ish (a little lower maybe). The income protection for a married student whose spouse is also in college is only $8550. 50% of any income over that goes to the EFC. So your EFC would be around $5500, too high for federal grants, (or with allowances for FICA and taxes, if any, your EFC may be just low enough for a small amount of Pell). Whether you would be eligible for State grants would depend on the state (our state has a 1700 EFC cut off for the whopping $1000 grant they provide).</p>
<p>As independent students, if your families are provide any financial support you would also be required to report that on FAFSA, which you probaby know.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that getting married will only make you an independent student as far as Federal Aid is concerned. </p>
<p>If you are receiving any type of institutional need based aid, most schools have policies in place that if you start school as a dependent student that you finish as a dependent student. At schools that give institutional aid, as a married student you could end up with less money because the school will still require your parent’s income and assets in addition to the income and assets of your spouse. Please check the policies at your school.</p>
<p>Not being judgemental here. I actually applaud your creativity and problem solving. For a brief second I was wondering who I could talk my son into marrying for the same benefit. </p>
<p>But the bottom line is that this is still fraud. Both to the gov’t and the school you apply to. So consider the potential long term consequences, including a court battle, fines, loss of scholarship/need to repay what you received, and potential loss of degree if someone pursued it. Also, you will need to disolve the marriage at some point, and although it is cheaper than college, it is not free to do that! Future employers will have access to that info as well, and it may impact your long term career. </p>
<p>The whole cost of college/financial assistance piece stinks. Especially for middle class families. So I completely get where you are coming from. Just don’t let the stupidness of the system ruin your future.</p>
<p>OK James…what’s the change? A year ago, you posted the above. What has changed since last August? </p>
<p>As noted above, you may find that you don’t actually get enough financial aid to fund your college tuition and separate room/board costs. The MAXIMUM federal aid you might (note MIGHT) receive would be about $11,000 (if you somehow both managed to qualify for the maximum Pell and the Stafford loan for freshmen of $5500). If you’re attending a “no loan” financial aid school, there are only a handful of those and your room/board costs would be about that.</p>
<p>On your FAFSA for the next year, you would be required to list your permanent addresses. You can’t list the dorm…that isn’t considered a “permanent address”. This means you will be spinning a yarn about where you both live together. </p>
<p>You are asking placing yourselves in the position of being a TARGET for verification, and while you will be able to provided the documents that say you are “married”, you really don’t plan to marry (living separately in DORMS would be highly unusual for married students who REALLY are married in the traditional sense). As noted, ANY and ALL money you receive from your parents (and this would include the costs of those health insurance premiums…that’s not free) would be required to be listed on your FAFSA forms…as would any other money paid on your behalf.</p>
<p>Do your parents support this idea? Do they even know about it? Remember too…as married folks your parents will not be able to list you as dependents on THEIR tax returns or get the college credits for what they do pay. You are placing your parents as partners in gaming the system for financial aid purposes…and they would need to fully cooperate. If they have any ethics, they would be telling you to look for colleges that you can afford to pay for and quit thinking about this scam. And yes…this might mean transferring for your last two years. Others have had to do so if they couldn’t pay the bills.</p>
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<p>P.S. Just an FYI…your “prenup” will have absolutely NO impact on the colleges. They will expect you and your wife to report each others income, assets, and any money paid on both of your behalfs on the FAFSAs you file. Ditto the Profile or a school form.</p>
<p>Your “no loan” school probably requires the CSS Profile or a school finaid form. The “married student” calculations provided by Swimcatsmom apply to the CSS Profile ONLY.</p>
<p>James…in a previous thread, you noted that your mom earned about $30K or so per year. Again…what has changed because an income in that range WOULD give you federally funded aid of some kind. Please clarify what is different THIS year as opposed to last when your school awarded you enough aid (without loans) to cover your COA. What has changed?</p>
<p>James…are you considering doing this “marriage on paper only” thing for your GIRLFRIEND’s financial aid? Your past posts indicate that your school is giving you very substantial need based aid. I would suggest you be VERY careful what you do. You could actually be jeopardizing the awarding of your OWN very generous need based aid package by getting married. The school awarding you IM could very well say “gee…he has the income to be married…and they are living in TWO separate residences at over $10K cost each…why would they need more aid?”</p>
<p>If you are married, and you are attending the same institution (or two institutions within reasonable commuting distance of each other), it is unlikely that you would be able to live in separate residence halls. Usually, married students who are able to arrange to live in a dorm are given permission to do so because they are studying far from wherever it is that their spouse is living.</p>
<p>While I don’t believe this type of marriage of convenience is fraud in the criminal sense, I still think it is a stupid idea.</p>
<p>While the upside may sound good in that you might get better financial aid, the downside is enormous.</p>
<p>You are now responsible for each other’s debts. What if your friend goes nuts and runs up $20K in credit card debt? You are responsible. What if she defaults on her student loans or any other kind of loan? They will come looking for you. What if she gets sued for something? On you.</p>
<p>What if she can’t find a job when you go to get divorced? You could wind up paying spousal support for who knows how long.</p>
<p>What if she winds up getting emotional about it and contests the divorce? $$$. What if she gets pregnant from another guy? Even though the kid is not yours, because you are married you could be held responsible for child support for 18 years.</p>
<p>You can say “oh she would never do that she is a very rational person”, but you just don’t know. People change.</p>
<p>People do marry for legal residency reasons. You can also get a divorce or separation for tax purposes or avoid getting married for those reasons. Anyone who does these things should think long and hard about the long term ramifications of doing stuff like this. Think you might want to run for office some day or be considered for some position where things like this are not investigated? There are also things that can happen that can be travesties. LIst as long as my arm. </p>
<p>Also unless the school guarantees to meet full need without certain caveats, you may not get the windfall you think you’ll get.</p>
<p>Aside from the ethical issues - you’ve completed at least one year of college (and you posted offers all over the place at CC to proofread other students’ essays) and you don’t know the proper usage of “myself”? Eek.
Try that first full sentence as “A friend from high school and I are considering getting married…”</p>