Hi! I am new here and I had some questions because I am a senior and preparing for college.
I just filled out my FAFSA form a couple weeks ago and my EFC is 0. but I may be getting a job that pays around $8 an hour and I might work 25 hours a week.
How will this affect my financial aid for the UPCOMING college years?
How much can I make before FAFSA starts taxing it?
Is there anything I can do to higher my financial aid for the upcoming college years while I work? I am a pre-med and want to avoid as much undergrad debt as possible. I heard moving your assets to your parents’ accounts helps or cashing out your money, but it sounds complicated and I did not even understand that.
My family makes (only my parents) around 35,000 and I live in a 5 person family and therefore qualified for an EFC of 0. My parents personally cannot contribute a lot to my college because my sister will be going to college 2 years after me. One of my older friends told me it would be cheaper to get a roommate and get an off-campus apartment (800 a month- and my parents would be able to contribute to this too comfortably assuming I get a good scholarship/financial aid package). Please help me out, anything is appreciated!
Your EFC is set for next year (2019-20 school year). Anything you make in 2018 won’t change that. When you file in 2019 for the following year, you will include anything you earn during 2018. There is an amount that you can earn where it won’t affect the EFC (about $6300?).
Anything you have in a savings or checking account when you file next Oct will need to be reported. You can avoid that by paying rent, buying books, paying bills right before you file. Any amount from a loan that you have in savings you don’t have to report.
FAFSA doesn’t tax anything.
You can get more aid through scholarships, grants.
What are your stats and home state? If your stats aren’t high enough for a lot of aid are there schools you could commute to?
Earning money is better than not earning money. Don’t try to hide your earnings. I think that anything you earn over $6k adds to your EFC, but I don’t think it adds much. If you earn $8k it might add $400 to your EFC (20% of $2000), but you’ll be ahead by $7600.
@austinmshauri@twoinanddone do you guys have any advice on the apartment situation? my friends and family have done the calculations numbers of times and it does come out to be cheaper. of course, I have backups just in case, but I want to be prepared for either case. My parents are contributing and so is my roommates, by junior year of college I will have two more roommates guaranteed (my sister and my very close family friend) and finances would be easier with four people. I am good with time management, so I am not worried about that, I am worried about it affecting my efc and balancing bills.
Some schools allow freshmen to live off campus and some people find that cheaper (often because you don’t have to have a meal plan), but others find it cheaper to live in a dorm. A dorm contract is usually from Aug to May, but a private rental is often 12 months. That’s great if you stay at the campus through the summer or if you can sublet. My daughter had a nice house and it was cheaper than the dorms even if it was 12 month lease and they couldn’t sublet (they didn’t try very hard).
Consider everything, like utilities, transportation, how you will get groceries, internet service, cleaning products, etc. Sometimes the dorms are cheaper and more convenient.
Isn’t that income low enough that your income and savings would be ignored? If not, then as mentioned, the first six thousand you earn is ignored anyway. Doesn’t sounds like you’d be earning much more than that anyway…and if you did, the impact would be so small.