My school does not require parents information. By being independent will it affect my financial aid?
Probably.
If you’re school doesn’t require parents info…why would you want to provide it?
You are an independent student for aid purposes…just put your own info and call it a day.
My D needs to provide parent information to be considered for health professions loan.
In most cases, you won’t need any parent info. Some schools and certain programs in some schools will require parent info to be considered for aid, but that should be communicated to you (so be sure to look for anything saying you need parent info, just in case).
??? For grad school?? What kind of loan?
If your child is in grad school, the SCHOOL may ask for parent info for their OWN aid, but parent info is NOT needed for a federal grad loan.
People get confused about this…
Some professional schools (med, law, pharm, etc) will ask for parent info on FAFSA to see if the student qualifies for any of the SCHOOL offered aid. However, for the federal loans, parent info is NOT required…Fed Direct loans and Fed Grad Plus loans only need student info.
It’s for PharmD. She can get a HPL and the school requires her to provide parent information on the FAFSA to be considered for it.
What is HPL…health professions loan? Is that a Sallie Mae loan? Is it a loan offered by the college itself? It’s not a federal loan. Fed student loans are Direct Loans and Grad Plus.
Either way, if a health professional student couldn’t get parent info for FAFSA, it’s not needed for Direct Loan and Grad Plus…so the student wouldn’t be stuck. School can’t require parent info for Grad Plus or Direct.
Here is some information
https://www.hrsa.gov/loan-scholarships/loans/index.html
It is a need based subsidized loan for certain health professions.
Administered by the school I think.
I was just trying to give an example where parent information might be required on the FAFSA for graduate students.
Ok…that’s a unique loan program that takes into account family’s financial need. Interesting that med schools don’t qualify.
Anyway, there are many grad students whose parents won’t provide info for FAFSA. The school can’t just shut them out of loan consideration. Those students may not be able to be offered that HRSA loan, so the school would stick to Direct and Grad Plus.
We gave our info, for our daughter’s Pharmacy program, eligibility for grad grants, and because we have another child at another school.
At UMich, HPL is available to pharm and dental students. We had to provide our info (never did a FAFSA before) even though D wasn’t intending to take the HPL, only the direct.
Yes, to be eligible for a school’s grants, many will ask/expect parents info. And it sounds like for HPL, parent info is required as well.
However, for Federal Direct and Federal Grad Plus, parent info is not required.
Sounds like a few grad schools just routinely ask for parent info or merit and other considerations…but I am certain that if the student said, “My parents won’t provide info,” the school would just say, “ok, but you’ll only get fed Direct and fed Grad Plus” loans.
The OP can ask his school if parent info is needed for merit or some other reason.