<p>If you decide to go back to college and your child is in college what will the effect of you returning to school have on childs aid package? could it make the EFC smaller for child or will there be not change at all and can the schools take away aid from child if you return to school?</p>
<p>You cannot list the parent under 'number in college' on FAFSA but it is something a school may make a professional adjustment for (with proof of enrollment, payment etc). I think it may vary from school to school whether they are willing to do this. So the best thing is to check with the school.
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/specialcircumstances.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/specialcircumstances.phtml</a></p>
<p>I think this question was posted before and someone posted that their school would not adjust for it.</p>
<p>I don't really understand the last part of the question - why would they take aid away from your child?</p>
<p>as swimcatsmom noted, the parent cannot be counted in the "number in college" in the FAFSA calculations. You can bring this up with the FA office and ask to have the child's FA adjusted due to a parent being in college -- but they really look at the situation before making any adjustments. Not only do they generally want proof of enrollment and payment of tuition, but they generally want to knot the reason the parent is going to college. Retraining to enter the job market or update necessary skills, complete classes towards a licensure, and other reasons that seem necessary to the parent's current employment are usually looked at well. Classes for fun or general knowledge, classes towards a second degree or a master's (unless needed for career advancement) are not looked upon as necessary and it might be considered that the parent is just trying to get the child's EFC lowered.</p>
<p>Ture the parent cannot be counted in the "number in college" for the childs FASFA. However, the parent also as a student should file a FASFA and it should make a difference here because then the child is alos listed on the parents FASFA. At least that is how we did it in our house. We are still waiting to here about my husbands aid award. It really has not affected our childs but we are also still waiting to see if there are any changes in the oriiginal aid award. Husband is retraining to enter the work force and attending college full time.</p>