<p>The OP would like the information to be automatically accessed - perhaps without parental knowledge or consent, no signature on the FAFSA because the tax information is theoretically already submitted with signature. As another poster noted this would not provide the asset information but I think OP is on a train of thought where bank balances being automatically accessed via SS# would be OK too…just guessing on that one.</p>
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<p>It’s a lot harder to falsify a W2 directly.</p>
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<p>Lots of people shouldn’t have kids . . . and for reasons far more significant than refusing to help them get funding for college. You have a solution?</p>
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<p>Aha - so now it’s my right to privacy versus the “greater good,” as defined by . . . you?</p>
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<p>The risk is inherent in any invasion of privacy. That’s the reason that privacy is protected.</p>
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<p>And you are welcome to move. I prefer not to - thanks.</p>
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<p>And a parent is perfectly with in their right not to fill out the FAFSA. The automatic pulling of someone’s information without their permission violates these rights.</p>
<p>*Then the parent shouldn’t have had a kid. The privacy concerns are trivial when compared to the greater good. The utility such information would have for society far outweighs any risk. Income verification is automatically and efficiently performed elsewhere in the world in many developed countries. *</p>
<p>Sounds like the stuff many of us who are now parent age heard when we were growing up- about the claims certain countries made about “state” rights trumping the rights of individuals. There are circumstances, yes, where this may be so. But for financial aid info? Get another cause. </p>
<p>Singapore, with 5 million population, is about half the size of New York City. Singapore’s 30,000 kids in college is roughly the number of undergrads at UMich.<br>
To state this is a simple matter of a dozen programmers, a cheaper alternative, more efficient for all, is to understate the number of issues involved. And, to overstate just how difficult it is to fill out aid info. </p>
<p>If a parent won’t do it, you don’t turn society upside down. And, perfect data or no, most families are still left with something to pay. If parents are “unwilling or unable” to support their kid’s college dreams or think the kid should be in the military, etc, how does auto-filling out aid forms get the kid closer to college?</p>
<p>This is getting ridiculous.
Right now, I am far more worried about how much Google is tracking me.</p>
<p>If someone is asking for financial aid, and fills our the FASFA, aren’t they waiving their rights to privacy of certain financial information? If you want privacy, don’t ask for financial aid. If you want financial aid, whoever is giving the aid has a right to that information.</p>
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<p>It’s not the parent who’s requesting financial aid - it’s the kid. And it’s the parent’s financial information - not the kid’s - that the OP wants disclosed without the parent’s consent.</p>
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<p>The mentality which is part of the reason that the American education system is declining so rapidly.</p>
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<p>Singapore has 260,000 kids in primary school, 200,000 kids in secondary school, all of which must be processed for Edusave bursary scholarships (to meet the requirements, one must be low-income and have scored in the top 25% in their national exams).</p>
<p>Also the number of Singaporean students in university and polytechnic combined is > 150,000 (<a href=“http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/yos11/statsT-education.pdf[/url]”>http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/yos11/statsT-education.pdf</a>).</p>
<p>Singapore accomplishes all of this with 1.6% of the American GDP. Mind you, databases have economy of scale.</p>
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<p>Because a lot of these kids have zero or close to zero EFC? (The kids can work/borrow for the difference.) But by being jerks their parents deny their kids access to aid.</p>
<p>Are you familiar with the mindset of low-income parents? I went to a very stratified high school where half of the students came from a blue-collar background, where a lot of the parents were misinformed and their kids suffered their backwards ideas as a consequence.</p>
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<p>You don’t know this. I’ve actually noticed a lot of times it’s the more well to do parents that don’t want their kids to have access to their financial info.</p>
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<p>I most definitely am. In my experience, it’s more that they’re ignorant of how to do financial stuff rather than an unwillingness to do it. Many of the low income kids I know just had their parents turn over financial stuff to the kids and let them figure it out. </p>
<p>I think it’s quite insulting to equate misinformed with “backwards”. Just because people aren’t well educated or aren’t well to do doesn’t mean they’re “backwards”.</p>
<p>When the OP is done explaining her statement that all low-income adults are “backwards,” I’d appreciate her also explaining how I’ve single-handedly brought on the decline of the American educational system by valuing my right to privacy . . . 
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<p>Oh, heck, maybe I’m the one who’s backwards!</p>
<p>I’m sorry your personal experience with low income kids and their misinformed parents left them in the dust, in your estimation. </p>
<p>Zero EFC is not a magic potion. Even with a completed Fafsa that yields a zero EFC, what you get depends on the policies of the college and the funds they have available.</p>
<p>OP, are you a student?</p>
<p>Nah, dodge, it’s obviously me because I was raised by backwards parents 
lol</p>
<p>Yes, I’m a student.</p>
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<p>It’s backwards if the dad thinks the kid needs to “be a man and join the military” rather than go to college, among other stories I have seen.</p>
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<p>I never said that. I just said that a lot of them have backwards ideas about parenting.</p>
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<p>What is the legitimate purpose of hiding one’s income from the government, other than evading taxes or laundering drug money? A government can definitely abuse something like wiretapping, but I can’t see the Department of Education abusing income data.</p>
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<p>Is this perhaps your experience with your parents? There could be some other reason that your parents are being uncooperative and do not want to provide you with information that has nothing to do with getting financial aid. Perhaps, they do not want you to leave to go to school, or they want to to attend school closer to home.</p>
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<p>I most definitely am familiar with the mindset of low income parents as I work with many of them. Because they are unfamiliar with how financial aid works, most simply give the information to their kids to bring to school and the student fills out the FAFSA with the aid of the GC/College adviser or teacher. </p>
<p>It has also been my experience that when you explain to them what their child needs to turn in, why they need to turn in and how their privacy will be respected, many have had no problem participating in the financial aid process.</p>
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<p>Keep in mind that some people feel that if something was good enough for them, than it is good enough for their children. </p>
<p>I have dealt with many parents who feel that because they worked and put themselves through college that their children should do the same. </p>
<p>I have dealt with parents who feel that college is a waste of money and the kid should go out and get a job (especially when they hear on the news about so many college students being unemployed). </p>
<p>I have dealt with parents who feel that their kids should join the military, commit to 4 years and then let the government pay to send their child to school, because this is how they, their friend, their brother went to college. It does not make them jerks or backwards, it is just their frame of reference.</p>
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<p>No, my story is not like that. I was fortunate that most financial aid didn’t mind that my non-custodial parent was not cooperative, but I could imagine situations where that could be a problem.</p>
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<p>Why should parents that would not have been able to send their child to college anyway be able to withhold data that allows their kids attend school by other means? In this case, the social benefit is clear and should override the parents on this case. Their kids after all, will (generally) be at least 18.</p>
<p>While the assumption of financial aid is that parents will help their children, there is no law requiring them to do so. That doesn’t mean the student will never be able to go to school, though. Many, many students have found ways to make it work despite their parents. Yes, it is hard - but it can be done. Kids from homes where the parents are a hindrance rather than a help do make it.</p>
<p>I agree that most parents of “disadvantaged” kids do want to help their kids - they just don’t always know how. Fortunately, there are lots of people willing to help them help their kids … or help the kids help themselves and their parents. There are College Goal Sundays across the U.S. in February, where finaid professionals work with parents and students to complete the FAFSA. Colleges all over the U.S. offer FAFSA days, and aid officers are willing to help parents/students one-on-one if they call & schedule an appointment - and some schools even have walk-in help available on a regular basis during the busy FAFSA-filing months (Jan-March). High schools have college financial aid nights, as do community organizations.</p>
<p>As a financial aid officer, I even called parents directly to explain to them the importance of filling out the FAFSA if the students told me the parents wouldn’t give them the needed info.</p>
<p>There are so many resources available. People want to help. </p>
<p>By the way, if a parent doesn’t file taxes … whether he doesn’t need to or needs to but fails to do so … a mandatory IRS link is useless. In order for the student to get aid when there is no IRS info, the parent must complete paperwork for a non-filer. So the mandatory link thing doesn’t really help those who may need it most.</p>
<p>My mom thought i should be a WOMAN and join the military. She was probably thinking be a grown up…or probably just find a way. Lots of young adults around here think thats the way to go, but itch doesn’t seem to have to do with being their gender.</p>
<p>Mostly folks around here just go to community college.</p>
<p>Sigh. I think this is not about kids vs parents. I think it’s about the crazy costs and expectations that .muddies emancipation.</p>
<p>While I sympathize with kids to day, usually at a point far removed from sleep away college, i hope kids today realize that for mostly US, this is a mind boggling change that happened between when we were eighteen , and when you are. I wonder what will happen between this generation and tenet.</p>
<p>hooooo. It is not backwards to many, many families if the parents want the kid to join the military. Just defending those who feel that way. It can, surprisingly, cross all socio-economic lines. </p>
<p>I lived in VA, the high-priced intellectual hubs and the downright backwoods. Please don’t take the attitude that what you feel is right is necessarily right. (Hand-in-hand with the comment that they shouldn’t have kids, and advocating limiting privacy of our records, it gets scary.)</p>
<p>Or, that your own perspective as a student, discussing and defending ideas, is more valid. That a teeny country like Singapore (which, I believe still bans the sale of chewing gum,) is a model for the US and the direction we should take. That personal privacies should be eliminated, because some parents are jerks about filling out a finaid form.</p>
<p>And, cc in VA is quite inexpensive. It is a very viable option, for a kid whose family is “unable or unwilling” or would prefer he take an alternate route. The bottom line has to do with the student’s motivation, determination and willingness.</p>
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<p>Since OP is so quick to talk about how things are done in other countries, many countries require citizens to serve 2 years in the military, where service in the US military is voluntary.</p>
<p>You gave examples about how things are done in Singapore, but they too have a mandatory service requirement</p>
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<p>Are people who don’t feel that they should serve in the military, calling it a stupid policy and railing against the government? I think not</p>