hello all,
my parents have been separated since i was born. father has high savings/assets but a lower income than my mother and my mother has a higher income but put zero assets/low savings on the 2015-2016 fafsa form. in order to maximize my financial aid, which parent should i put for the 2016-2017 fafsa? i will be going to college this fall.
thanks in advance
Well, which parent do you live with?
You don’t get to just pick which parent would benefit you more to put on the FAFSA, you have to put down the one with which you’ve lived with the most in the past year (in general).
For FAFSA, you put the person you live with. If you spend exactly the same amount of time with each of them, then you put the person who spends more money on your up-keep. If you spend exactly the same amount of time with each of them, and each of them spends exactly the same amount on your up-keep, then you send a PM to @kelsmom who is a financial aid officer, and get her advice on how to determine which of your parents is your parent for FAFSA purposes.
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On 4/28, your post indicated that you’ve already filed FAFSA. Which parent do you live with? Which parent did you put on that FAFSA?
i have filed my 2015-16 fafsa but not my 2016-17 fafsa. i live with both for equal amounts of time and both provide similar amounts of up-keep for me
Which parent did you put on the 2015-16 FAFSA and why did you use that parent?
mother because she claimed me
What was your EFC with your mom’s info?
according to what you’ve said, you have to use your mom.
around $2000 each parent. and how come?
Wait a minute, even if your parent claims you on taxes they might not be the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes. When you get ready to file the 2016/17 FAFSA you put that parent’s info on FAFSA with whom you lived with more in the 365 days immediately before filing FAFSA.
What do you mean you put your mom on 2015/16 FAFSA?
If you start college in fall 2016 you file 2016/17 FAFSA, not 2015/16
What FAFSA did you complete? 2016-2017 is the one for the upcoming year.
On the date you filed the FAFSA, which oarent did you reside with more than 50% of the time?
If it’s really equal, you are required to use the oarent who provided the majority of your financial support, and usually this is the oarent who earned the most money.
If you spend equal time with both parents, and they both equally contribute to your care, then you use the parent with the higher income…which is your mom.
If your EFC is $2000 with “each parent,” why are you questioning using your mom?
i’m sorry i assumed efc meant expected family contribution. is it something else?
as for the 15-16 fafsa, i filled out (for, as i’ve realized now, some unknown reason) using my mother’s tax info
EFC does stand for expected family contribution. It is the MINIMUM you will be expected to pay yourselves for college.
If it’s the same for either parent…what difference does it make which one you put on your FAFSA?
Are you applying to any schools that require the Profile? Some of them require info from BOTH parent…
This is a very easy thing to control if you spend about equal time with each parent. The first rule of FAFSA is you file using the parent you live with the most. If you want to use your mother, spend an extra night with her during the 365 days immediately before you file. If you want to use your father, spend the extra night with him.
There are no fafsa police. If you state that you live with your mother most, they will believe you. If you insist that you live with both parents an exact equal number of nights, then you go to the next ‘tie breaker’ of who supports you more. Again, if you insist that it is equal, then you go to the next tie breaker of who makes the most income.
It appears it doesn’t even matter in your case, as the EFC comes out the same.
Some parents that share custody will alternate who claims the dependent on their taxes. I wonder if FAFSA would then switch year to year with this, but w/o knowing the rules, I would stick to the mom since you filed that way before and it doesn’t sound like filing differently would change anything. Try to keep things simple.
FAFSA doesn’t depend on who claims the child. IRS has it’s definition of the parent ‘entitled’ to claim the exemption and the FAFSA definition is different.
The parents may want to consider the other tax credits that are connected to claiming the dependent exemption on the tax form, but FAFSA information is not determined by the IRS definition.