<p>Our son is a full time college student, has a part time job (not work study), and receives financial aid. Does anyone know how a financial aid package might be affected if a student works over the threshold during the year; i.e, does it affect the Pell Grant, State Grant, EFC ???</p>
<p>I believe that dependent student earning over the threshold amount of about $6K or so (I don’t remember exact amount) is assessed at half towards the EFC. There may be some situations where it does not work that way, depending on the whole family picture (what is the parental EFC?, qualification for auto zero, simplified means, etc). The EFC is what generates PELL grant and other aid packages. There is a cut off EFC for PELL, around $5600 and as one gets lower than that number the EFC increases to a minimum of about $5700 or so for a zero EFC. The way it usually works for federal aid, including subsidized loans and work study, is that a family has to pay the EFC first before getting any federal aid, except for PELL which is an entitlement. </p>
<p>Thank you . . . our EFC has been 0 (not auto zero or simplified). His part-time job will not affect our part of the FAFSA. We are just trying to determine whether it is better for him stay under the thresh hold for work by his monitoring his hours (and not compromise his financial aid) or just not worry about it since he probably wouldn’t be over the thresh hold too much anyway. His college does require a contribution from each student (with or without aid) but we just wondered how his job would affect things – both generally and specifically – when the SAR was generated. </p>
<p>In your situation, I recommend you talk to a financial aid counselor about this. Since he’s there already and getting aid, and they can see what his financial situation is, they may be able to discuss this with you . Some colleges will put job earning directly to wards the required student contribution up front and then look at what 's left there. Most integrate Pell grants with their own money, some do not. You can look up and see what EFC results in what PELL amount pretty easily And his EFC would be Earned Income less taxes (AGI on Tax form) less the maximum threshhold amount which is about $6K, a little more, I think. Then you take half of that. That’s his EFC, assuming zero assets–make sure his assets are spent down, or in a joint account with you as primary if he has any, or documented as prev years fin aid amounts , because for students the hit on assets on the day he fills out FAFSA is 20% on EFC right there. </p>