<p>I know that if a student has siblings who are also in college, that lowers the EFC for each student. What about if a parent is in college? I had assumed it worked the same way, but in the line-by-line instructions for the FAFSA, it says any household member other than your parents who will be attending school at least half-time qualifies to be counted. </p>
<p>So if a parent is in school, that isn't taken into consideration? That doesn't seem fair, since it is still an educational expense incurred by the household.</p>
<p>I believe it is something you can ask a school to make a special circumstances adjustment for. Whether they do or not is at their discretion.</p>
<p>I think you used to be able to list the parent but there was a lot of abuse with parents taking random classes so that they could be counted in the number in college thus reducing the EFC. So now the parents cannot be included when completing FAFSA, but if a financial aid officer feels that including a parent is justified they can adjust the FAFSA to reflect that.</p>
<p>Parents are specifically excluded from the # in college for a dependent student. If the parent is a student, though, he/she may include their child in their own # in college. In other words, it will be 2 for the parent, 1 for the student. That's the way the law is written.</p>