What if parent is full-time student?

Paying for College
1

<p>My son will be a college student starting in Fall 2010.</p>

<p>We haven't filled out the FAFSA yet, but the online financial aid estimators I've used ask how many siblings are also full-time college students, but not whether a parent is a full-time student.</p>

<p>My wife is a full-time student and will be so when my son starts college, and this obviously impacts our financial situation.</p>

<p>What is the rationale behind this distinction? Thanks in advance for your answers.</p>

2

<p>On her FAFSA your wife can count your son as a member of household in college. So there would be 2 in college on her FAFSA. But you cannot put your wife as a member in college on your son’s FAFSA. So his would just show 1 in college. I am in college and my 2 kids are. On each of their FAFSAs it shows 2 in college (student + sibling), on mine it shows 3 in college (me + both kids). I don’t know the rationale behind it but those are the rules. I think it may be because of abuse in the past when parents would sign up for a couple of classes just to reduce their child’s EFC.</p>

3

<p>Rationale???</p>

<p>This is the government we’re talking about.</p>

4

<p>Basically, it doesn’t matter for him. I’m a full time student, too. In another year, all three members of my family will be in school, but I still won’t be able to count myself when I do the children’s FAFSAs next January. </p>

<p>I don’t know the rationale either. If I had to guess, I would say that it has something to do with not encouraging parents to increase possible aid that way, but I don’t know. Maybe it got put in there by some debate in Congress at some point.</p>

5

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<p>That seems like the most likely explanation to me, and something like that did cross our minds. I told my wife that if we’re going to suffer the loss of her income, it may as well be timed to maximize the possibility of getting need-based financial aid for the kiddo. Unfortunately, at our middle-to-upper-middle class income level, it will still leave us paying something between “extremely uncomfortable” and “excruciating”. :(</p>