<p>Just to confirm that I have this right. When doing our daughters FAFSA - Our family is 4 people but our son, who is 20, does not live at home and is pretty much financially independant. But we still include him in number of people in family because he is not classified as independant for FAFSA purpose. (under 24, unmarried etc). Correct? Incorrect?</p>
<p>To include him in your family, you have to provide more than half of his support OR he has to be able to answer "no" to every question in section 2 - Born before 1/1/84, not working on a graduate degree, not married, no kids, not in the military...</p>
<p>So he is included as he can answer 'no' to all the questions though we do not provide half his support (though we probably will come sept as he has decided he is going back to school in the fall).</p>
<p>Actually, you may need to check the FAFSA site for the answer to this question. There is no doubt that the 20 year old son is considered dependent if HE is filing for finaid. BUT I'm not sure he is listed as a "family member/dependent" if he is not a college student, and is not being listed as a dependent on your taxes. The number of people in your family for tax purposes should match the number of people on the FAFSA, I believe. If your son (the 20 year old) is no longer a dependent, is self supporting, and is not in college himself, well...you'd need to check that. Remember that dependent for finaid purposes is VERY different than dependent for TAX purposes.</p>
<p>According to the FAFSA website:
[quote]
How many people are in your parents? household? (Q66)
Include in your parents? household: (1) your parents and yourself, even if you don?t live with your parents, (2) your parents? other children if (a) your parents will provide more than half of their support from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, **or<a href="b">/b</a> the children could answer ?No? to every question in Section 2 of this worksheet
[/quote]
He can indeed answer no to every question in section 2 of the worksheet so it seems that he is included in our household number though we do not claim him as a dependant for tax purposes. </p>
<p>Since I posted the original question he has decided to go back to school next fall so now we have 2 FAFSAs to fill out.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyones input.</p>
<p>Hey swimcats mom:
congrats on your son electing to return to school, that sounds great!</p>
<p>I just learned from financial aid folks at a local private college that your son would be considered a family member/dependent in the FAFSA - the definition is different than the one for taxes, and you shouldn't confuse the two. If he answers "no" to all the questions on FAFSA, he's a family member for FAFSA, even if he's not a dependent for tax purposes.</p>
<p>Thanks Chedva for clarifying that. It does get confusing but that is why checking with the FAFSA folks helps. Honestly, I think I would have answered that one incorrectly if I had been doing the form myself. Good luck with the op's son and his college search. There are tons of schools where there are later deadlines...DD applied to a school with a March 1 deadline (and got accepted...with a scholarship no less...didn't attend, but the schools are there).</p>
<p>Thank you somemom. We are excited and a bit panicked at the same time!</p>
<p>And thank you Chedva - I was pretty sure I was understanding it correctly but it is nice to have it confirmed by actual financial aid folks.</p>
<p>Thanks thumper. It is all a bit confusing. If he doesn't get all his ducks in a row in time for march deadlines we will encourage him to take a few credits at a community college to keep the ball rolling.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom:
if he is not quite on traack with the application scheduling, you might see if the college has some sort of unofficial, non-enrolled way to take classes which then allows one to upgrade to official status later. My D had to take a regular term class at a school not her home uni and they had a program offered as space available which allowed her to take the class without matriculating and they do offer the option to later apply and use those classes...one way for people who are not ona traditional track to not be stymied by all the long term planning that "normal" kids are doing, but which people who have had "real lives" may not be in line with!</p>
<p>G'luck!</p>