<p>Yeah, the snide post/making fun of the financial naivete of a 16 year old weren’t needed to make your point.</p>
<p>^ that was my thought too ???!!!</p>
<p>PS there is a thread on CC about FAFSA only schools at which a student should be able to partially offset non-support from a higher income but noncontributing divorce parent.</p>
<p>Also not sure if the original poster addressed choosing a State University and considering in state versus out of state tuitions and rules of establishing residency. ie looking to become a legal resident in the state which has the State University you want to attend. My general advice is finish high school where you will be happier without regard to strategizing for college.</p>
<p>PPS i think univer of Utah assigns in state status to all sophomores and higher who go there.</p>
<p>Dodgers mom - OP said…</p>
<p>“Dad is currently going to college to be a teacher (he graduates Spring 2014) and step mom is a high school / part time college professor. Dad is unemployed at the moment because the company he worked at (a driver’s education school in Maryland) went out of business in June 2013. I’d estimate their household income is about $40k now.”</p>
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<p>Not true. Actually it works the other way around; if the parent is going to college and has a kid in college, it is the parent’s EFC that gets reduced, not the kid’s. The student does not benefit from having a parent in college.</p>
<p>I disagree sybbie719. I was a part time student for two years. The FAFSA questionnaire for me and my two children in college all showed the four people in the household and asked “How many of these are attending college at least part time” (or something like that). Then asked for school IDs.</p>
<p>Further research seems to indicate that I am wrong. FAFSA does ask the question but apparently it only affected my EFC.</p>
<p>My bad.</p>
<p>FASA DOES go by whicj parent you live with - believe me I know</p>