<p>Both of my parents are deceased. My last parent died after I was eighteen, so I never had a guardian and am therefore considered an independent student.</p>
<p>However, my younger sister is 15 and my older sister is in the process of becoming her legal guardian. I am just wondering what ramifications this would have on my younger sister's financial aid applications.</p>
<p>Would she be considered an independent student, as I am? Or would she be a dependent student? Would my older sister be expected to contribute money towards my younger sister's college expenses?</p>
<p>My lawyer has assured me that my older sister would not be expected to pay anything, as she is only becoming the legal guardian and not actually adopting my sister. However I wanted to get an answer from people here because I know you are all very knowledgeable about the financial aid process. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any help.</p>
<p>P.S. My younger sister is considering schools that require both the FAFSA & the CSS profile.</p>
<p>I believe she would still be considered a dependent student. You will get a lot of financial aid from colleges from what I know because guardians are not expected to pay for college fees.
I am really sorry for your losses too I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like.</p>
<p>I think I remember your earlier post. Again, I am so sorry about your loss.</p>
<p>I don’t think your sister will be considered a “dependent” of your sister as far as FAFSA is concerned because FAFSA doesn’t consider guardians/siblings/grandparents/etc as responsible for contributing to a student’s education.</p>
<p>So, I think she will be considered “independent” when she applies for aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think either FAFSA or Profile would expect your older sister to contribute, but perhaps Swimcatsmom will pop in and give you the definitive answer.</p>
<p>I also wanted to say how sorry I am that you are all needing to cope with the loss of your parents. I’m glad you have each other.</p>
<p>You only need to do a css profile on collegeboard if your colleges say they need it. Normally private universities use it along with FAFSA to determine you financial aid package. There’s more questions with the css profile than FAFSA and you have to pay for each college you do the css profile for. One my colleges required i sent my parents tax forms to college board and another didn’t. Its not really a big deal but important you finish it when the time comes if your college requires it.</p>
<p>Once she goes to take the SAT’s you have to make a account on college board. You use that same account if you want to work your css profile on there. Its good your helping her out early. Making sure grades are good and SAT scores are good early is good.</p>
<p>Okay, I found a little bit more information…it looks like the CSS profile will want my older sister to contribute.</p>
<p>“Understanding what we mean by parents”…“If you have a legal guardian, answer questions about your legal guardian”</p>
<p>Is there anything that can be done? The original plan was always to have my older sister take care of my younger sister, but for me be the legal guardian for precisely this reason – at age 19, I have the lowest income out of anyone in my family who would potentially become the legal guardian, and therefore under me my sister would get the best potential aid. However, I live in a college dorm and really don’t have all that much income, so my lawyers said it was unlikely to be approved by the judge.</p>
<p>Is there anything that can be done? My older sister has a relatively high-ish income that will drastically reduce my younger sister’s chances for financial aid.</p>
<p>It just doesn’t seem fair…my older sister is not like her parent in the sense that she was not saving up for my younger sister’s college education all these years…my parents died very suddenly & quite recently. Never did my older sister ever think that she would be put in the position of providing for my younger sister financially. She would do it gladly if she could…but my sister is going to college in only three years…that just isn’t enough time to plan & save.</p>
<p>It’s possible that a school would take the young age and relationship of the guardian into account or allow a FA appeal. They’re only using CSS to determine institutional aid funding, so what they use and how they use it is determined by their own aid policies, but it would not affect her federal or state grant funding in any case. Once the FA award season is over, you might pose this question to one or more of her likely schools, but many things could change in the years to come. </p>
<p>As suggested above, one of the best things your sister can do is keep her stats high enough to be competitive for merit aid (assuming her potential schools offer it). Since your sister is so young, there’s a very good chance that her college list will change in the interim. As you know, little is guaranteed in regards to college funding and even a 0 EFC often won’t make a college affordable, so it’s best for them to plan accordingly. And you can always ask the very helpful and knowledgeable folks here on CC for suggestions when she’s a junior!</p>
<p>She’s lucky to have both of you and I’m sure your folks are very proud of you for looking out for each other. In the meantime, it’s important that your sister have a legal guardian who can devote the time and resources she needs. Good luck!</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that any college that used CSS Profile would expect a sibling who recently became the guardian under these circumstances would be expected to financially contribute. </p>
<p>However, to be on the safe side, your sister will need to apply to some FAFSA only schools as well.</p>
<p>Got it figured out, looks like it should be okay. I included a bit of what my sister emailed me in case anyone is searching the archives later on or whatever:</p>
<p>I am in a very similar situation. My wife and I are legal guardians to her sister since she was 14. Both parents are deceased. I am told that the fact that both parents are deceased makes her an “independent student” as far as Fafsa’s classifications.</p>