<p>On FAFSA are checking/savings accounts counted towards the EFC?</p>
<p>I have been told yes and no on this question, so now I am looking for a solid answer.</p>
<p>I thought that EFC was based solely on income, but now I hear that it is also determined by the amount of money in checking/savings accounts.</p>
<p>Please help me clarify this.</p>
<p>Yes, your assets are included in the EFC formula. However, the amount they “count” depends on several things.</p>
<p>I will be getting money back, since the amount of scholarships and grants I receive exceed my housing and tuition.</p>
<p>FAFSA’s FAQ states:</p>
<p>"How do I report the financial aid I received last year as part of my income?</p>
<p>Money you or your parents received from student loans, grants, and scholarships should not be listed on your FAFSA, unless you were taxed on them by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If you or your parents reported financial aid money to the IRS, then you must include that total amount as part of your Adjusted Gross Income and in the appropriate location on the Additional Financial Information section in questions c and d."</p>
<p>I will be putting this extra money that I get from financial aid in the bank. Would I include that on FAFSA next year where it asks for how much money I have in my checking account?</p>
<p>If you received grants & scholarships in excess of tuition, you will have to report it on your taxes next year (there are several threads on this subject in the Financial Aid Forum). </p>
<p>If any of this money is left when you go to fill out the FAFSA next year, you have to report it. If it’s gone (e.g., you may need it to pay the taxes on the above!), you wouldn’t report it in the asset section … you only report what is there on the day you fill out the FAFSA (not what was there 3 or 4 months earlier).</p>
<p>Thanks kelsmom, I will look at those threads and talk with the financial aid office when the time comes.</p>
<p>I was playing with numbers on the EFC calculator at finaid.org, and it came out to be that if I have any savings I will have to contribute a percentage to it, no matter what. But, if I had student income, with no savings I would not have to contribute anything.</p>
<p>So FAFSA encourages you to spend all earned income. Is there a way to get around this, while still saving?</p>
<p>There is a formula that includes protection allowances. If you want to calculate by hand, you’ll get a better idea of how changes impact you: <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/0910AVGCh3.pdf</a>. Look for the formula sheets at the end of the chapter & find the one that fits you (dependent, independent, etc).</p>
<p>I can speak in broad strokes but maybe not to your particular questions.</p>
<p>In addition to the FAFSA there is also the CSS Profile that some colleges use to determine eligibility for financial aid. We filled them both out this year for our daughter and judging from the questions they’ve seen all the tricks and you can’t get around anything. As a student you are expected to pay what you can before the school will give you aid. Your parents will be allowed to keep some threshold of savings before the school starts tapping into it. If you feel like you need money you aren’t getting you are not alone, we ultimately didn’t qualify for any need based assistance. But in the end the important thing is that you get your education, not where the money comes from.</p>
<p>Kelsmom - I didn’t think you did have to report any financial aid money left in the bank on the day you file FAFSA. On the asset instructions it says </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I took this to mean that any cash in the bank that is from financial aid refunds is not reported. My daughter gets a ‘refund’ and part of it still is in the bank awaiting rent and utilities on the day she files FAFSA. Doesn’t actually make a difference for us as we qualify for the automatic 0, but may for other people.</p>
<p>That is what I thought swimcatsmom. I constantly find opposing views on this question, so I am not sure what is right.</p>
<p>Certainly any other money in the bank has to be reported and is used in calculating the EFC (unless it is below protected for thresholds for parents, students have no asset protection). Cash in the bank and savings are treated exactly the same (I am not sure why they even ask for them as separate items) in the formula. 20% of student assets go to the EFC and up to 5.6% of parent unprotected assets. But, based on the instructions above, we do not report money in the bank that is from financial aid.</p>
<p>As a student, how do you save money and still not get penalized for it?</p>
<p>Good question.</p>
<p>As already mentioned, your parents have an asset protection allowance and you do not. The APA is based upon the age of your oldest parent. It’s not a direct equivalent, but it is close to APA=age*1000. So if your parent is 45, they should have an APA somewhere close to $45,000. (that is if you live in a two-parent, married household)</p>
<p>I don’t have a link handy to the actual table.</p>
<p>Anyway if your parents have room in their APA, then have them open a second account in their name that you use. Save your money there. They can make you a signatory, and give you a debit card on the account if you so wish.</p>
<p>Bending the rules? No, that’s the rules as they are written.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a better explanation of the asset protection allowance.</p>
<p>[Asset</a> Protection Allowance](<a href=“http://realcollegesavings.com/blog/asset-protection-allowance/]Asset”>http://realcollegesavings.com/blog/asset-protection-allowance/)</p>
<p>I will NEVER understand why a single parent gets less than 1/2 the income protection than a married couple. I really would love to see the logic behind that. I could see it being less than the full amount that the 2 parent household gets, but less than half???</p>
<p>This is the government!</p>
<p>You want logic??</p>
<p>I work for the government, trust me, I KNOW lack of logic when I live it every day it seems!</p>
<p>So does my wife. She collecting all of her stories so she can become a writer for “The Office”.</p>
<p>I’ve got material for her!</p>
<p>Only place in the world where you can get written up for doing work (that needed to be done) BEFORE your boss tells you to. yup, I’ve got it in writing :-)</p>
<p>I called it forward thinking, they saw it as disobeying an order.</p>
<p>That sounds way too familiar.</p>
<p>I also got in trouble for working BEYOND my duty hours. I wasn’t asking for OT or comp time. I had a job running (for 3 hours) and didn’t want to kill it. I sent the output to my boss after I would have normally been done working (I was working from home) and she told me that I was jeopardizing my telework agreement by working past my quit time</p>
<p>I kid you NOT</p>