FAFSA Question

[Anonymous]

At many schools the FAFSA can be filled out by just one divorced parent, which is best in your case if it us the parent who claims the child on their taxes and has a lower income. Your child might qualify for financial aid based on just his mother's income. I don't understand why some colleges allow this but many do allow financial aid to be based on one parent's income. Have you considered that your ex wife might be making a lot more than you think and that is the reason she doesn't want to fill out the FAFSA? Is there an agreement in writing that she gets to claim the college student on tax forms? If not you should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is putting it on a credit card an option? Regarding the fasfa - when DS decided he was going to "have fun" his freshman year, we refused to pay for more fun the sophomore year. He had to take loans ( basically taught him a lesson ) anyway, we filled out the fasfa not him.

Thanks for the idea. That's probably a a good way to tide us over until we can figure out a loan option. Or maybe that is the loan option for this. But I've got to think that even a private bank loan would have a lower interest rate than a credit card.

[Anonymous]

Your first stop is the college's financial aid office, OP. They will likely tell you that BOTH parents have to fill out the FA forms to receive FA or loans from the school for the spring semester. You need to do this NOW. If one parent won't cooperate, then the school will not give the child any FA.

You are crazee to think of putting tuition on a credit card!! Don't do it, OP!! Don't take out loans until you have exhausted any and all FA options from the school's FA office. If the mom won't cooperate, then unfortunately, her child is going to suffer. If you don't have the money this year, then she has to help by filling out forms or paying the rest of the money herself, pissed or not, agreement or no.

Not an easy situation, OP, but if your DH is being transparent with his ex, she will have to cooperate. The FAFSA is irrelevant, but the FA office will tell you what you need to do. This is not an uncommon situation, and they will work with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your first stop is the college's financial aid office, OP. They will likely tell you that BOTH parents have to fill out the FA forms to receive FA or loans from the school for the spring semester. You need to do this NOW. If one parent won't cooperate, then the school will not give the child any FA.

You are crazee to think of putting tuition on a credit card!! Don't do it, OP!! Don't take out loans until you have exhausted any and all FA options from the school's FA office. If the mom won't cooperate, then unfortunately, her child is going to suffer. If you don't have the money this year, then she has to help by filling out forms or paying the rest of the money herself, pissed or not, agreement or no.

Not an easy situation, OP, but if your DH is being transparent with his ex, she will have to cooperate. The FAFSA is irrelevant, but the FA office will tell you what you need to do. This is not an uncommon situation, and they will work with you.

So DH should call the schools FA and find out what to do or does the child need to make the call?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The FAFSA is completed by the student, not the parent. However, it is completed sometime between January and March for the next year. If you are thinking the FAFSA will help for the spring semester, that is incorrect. Call the college's financial aid office on January, but I think the only possibility for the spring will be private loans.

That is what I was thinking. I read on the FAFSA website that the deadline for the 2014-2015 school year was June 30 2015.

You're reading it wrong. Look at what you wrote--the deadline for the passing school year is in 2015. It is definitely not too late to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The FAFSA is completed by the student, not the parent. However, it is completed sometime between January and March for the next year. If you are thinking the FAFSA will help for the spring semester, that is incorrect. Call the college's financial aid office on January, but I think the only possibility for the spring will be private loans.

That is what I was thinking. I read on the FAFSA website that the deadline for the 2014-2015 school year was June 30 2015.

You're reading it wrong. Look at what you wrote--the deadline for the passing school year is in 2015. It is definitely not too late to apply.

OP here---I wrote the "That is what I was thinking...." Yes, I agree with you and I'm glad you are confirming what I thought-. That it is NOT too late to apply for this school year. DH is working on ex wife and trying to convince her to fill out the forms with their child. If nothing else, the child should qualify for an unsubsized loan as long as the FAFSA gets submitted. That's all we need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The FAFSA is completed by the student, not the parent. However, it is completed sometime between January and March for the next year. If you are thinking the FAFSA will help for the spring semester, that is incorrect. Call the college's financial aid office on January, but I think the only possibility for the spring will be private loans.

That is what I was thinking. I read on the FAFSA website that the deadline for the 2014-2015 school year was June 30 2015.

You're reading it wrong. Look at what you wrote--the deadline for the passing school year is in 2015. It is definitely not too late to apply.

OP here---I wrote the "That is what I was thinking...." Yes, I agree with you and I'm glad you are confirming what I thought-. That it is NOT too late to apply for this school year. DH is working on ex wife and trying to convince her to fill out the forms with their child. If nothing else, the child should qualify for an unsubsized loan as long as the FAFSA gets submitted. That's all we need.

What state are you in? The federal deadline is 6/30/15 but individual states have imposed their own deadlines that take precedence. You need to look at your specific state. http://fafsa.gov/fotw1415/pdf/Deadlines.pdf

The FAFSA and all financial discussions are to be between the student and the bursar's office at their college. Even though we took out a parent plus loan (which is an option for you) for my oldest step daughter, when we needed to get some questions answered regarding it, the bursar's office would NOT talk to us. SD had to make all the phone calls. Additionally, when they cut us the check for the remainder of the money after semester 1 is dispersed, it is made out to the student. This annoys the ever loving shit out of me given that it's OUR name on the loan, NOT hers, but whatever. She signs it over to us and we deposit it and use it for second semester.

Yes, parents typically fill out the FAFSA for their kid but it is technically the kid's responsibility as they are the ones who create a log in. They are legal adults and the FAFSA and colleges treat them as such. In situations where one parent refuses to let their information be used, the kid is pretty much screwed. I think some colleges offer work arounds but basically, go google "parent refusing to give their info for FAFSA" and see what kind of stories you read. Government says that you are financially responsible for your kid til 26 when it comes to college so without that info, they're just going to say your kid is SOL.

We had to do the payment plan option for SD's second year of college b/c the loan money didn't come through in time. They do only offer you the option to split it up into four payments to be paid for four consecutive months. It's kind of stupid really. We used that option solely so we could give them some money to hold them over until the loan came through and then we paid the rest with that. The annoying part was the fee you have to pay for the privilege of paying in installments.

Honestly, I'd just go get a parent plus loan. If you all are planning on paying it back (rather than your kid) it's a decent rate and it's easy to get. Do the installment plan option so that you can pay whatever needs to be paid by the spring deadline (1/4th the tuition) and apply for the parent plus loan for whatever else you need to cover the rest of the semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dh has 2 older children from a previous marriage. The oldest is a jr in college now and will hopefully be going back for the spring semester. For the past 10 years, DH has always gotten a bonus check in Dec. This year, the check was significantly less. For the past 2 years, we have used that check to pay for college. The kid is at an in state school, so the tuition is not overwhelming, but it is more than we can write a check for in the next month.

DH has always told the kid and the ex-wife that he would pay for college as long as he could. For the spring semester, he just doesn't have it. So we came up with the idea that the child could get a student loan for the spring. DH and I will tighten the budget and hopefully be able to come up with a good portion of the fall tuition. To get a student loan though, the FAFSA needs to be filled out. Ex wife is pissed and won't do it. DH has always allowed her to claim their children on her taxes. So they are not shown as dependents on our taxes. If she won't fill out the FAFSA, can we do it, even though on our taxes the older kids are not shown as a dependents?

Who claims the kids isn't relevant when it comes to the FAFSA. However, it is required that the parent who has custody be the one to provide their info. I'm sure people lie to get around this all the time but it's supposed to be the custodial parent.

One thing you haven't mentioned is a court order. What does the court order say for college costs? Is BM required to pay anything? Does it say anything about splitting costs AFTER all federal loan options are exhausted? If so, she would be required to fill out the FAFSA in order to comply with that CO.

The FAFSA only gets you the Expected Family Contribution which is then used to generate how much the government will be SO generous as to loan your child in a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Those loans will be in your child's name. From your later posts, it looks like you said you all were planning on paying whatever loan back it is that you all were planning on getting. If that's the case, again, I would forego the FAFSA and the federal loans and just go the parent plus route.

[Anonymous]

Also, look over this page:

https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info#unwilling-parents

There is a way to get through the FAFSA if your parents are unwilling to fill out the info. My guess is you can tell the school that custodial parent is unwilling (and she can write a letter indicating this to the school to prove it) and that you're using your DH's info instead.

[Anonymous]

FAFSA - If your child completes your taxes every year for you by all means have them complete the FAFSA, if not forget it and complete it yourself.
With divorced parents it is the custodial parent, or head of household that completes the FAFSA. I wish my ex would do it as he earns significantly less, but alas.

This will be my fifth year of completion, and I had professional advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dh has 2 older children from a previous marriage. The oldest is a jr in college now and will hopefully be going back for the spring semester. For the past 10 years, DH has always gotten a bonus check in Dec. This year, the check was significantly less. For the past 2 years, we have used that check to pay for college. The kid is at an in state school, so the tuition is not overwhelming, but it is more than we can write a check for in the next month.

DH has always told the kid and the ex-wife that he would pay for college as long as he could. For the spring semester, he just doesn't have it. So we came up with the idea that the child could get a student loan for the spring. DH and I will tighten the budget and hopefully be able to come up with a good portion of the fall tuition. To get a student loan though, the FAFSA needs to be filled out. Ex wife is pissed and won't do it. DH has always allowed her to claim their children on her taxes. So they are not shown as dependents on our taxes. If she won't fill out the FAFSA, can we do it, even though on our taxes the older kids are not shown as a dependents?

Who claims the kids isn't relevant when it comes to the FAFSA. However, it is required that the parent who has custody be the one to provide their info. I'm sure people lie to get around this all the time but it's supposed to be the custodial parent.

One thing you haven't mentioned is a court order. What does the court order say for college costs? Is BM required to pay anything? Does it say anything about splitting costs AFTER all federal loan options are exhausted? If so, she would be required to fill out the FAFSA in order to comply with that CO.

The FAFSA only gets you the Expected Family Contribution which is then used to generate how much the government will be SO generous as to loan your child in a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Those loans will be in your child's name. From your later posts, it looks like you said you all were planning on paying whatever loan back it is that you all were planning on getting. If that's the case, again, I would forego the FAFSA and the federal loans and just go the parent plus route.[/quote

OP here-- the court order ended when the child turned 18. There is no mention of college is the child support agreement. But BM makes very little money so there is no way she can financially contribute to college.

I'm confused about the federal vs state deadlines. I thought the federal deadline was for federal funds such as Pell and Stafford loans and the state deadline was for any state programs. Am I incorrect? We want the Stafford loans which I thought followed the federal deadlines. What do students who start in the spring semester do?

I've been looking into the Plus loan as well. That maybe the route we take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FAFSA is completed by the student, not the parent. However, it is completed sometime between January and March for the next year. If you are thinking the FAFSA will help for the spring semester, that is incorrect. Call the college's financial aid office on January, but I think the only possibility for the spring will be private loans.

The FAFSA requires the cooperation of both parents if the student is of normal college age. OP, have a blunt talk with your child. If the money isn't there, it isn't there. You can always get a private loan without a FAFSA, but that costs more. ED is not sympathetic to parents who don't cooperate -- it is assumed that they will and they should. BOTH parents.

[Anonymous]

Plus loans are more expensive and don't have the great payback options of the other loans.

You will need the cooperation of the mom. You may have some leeway if the school's financial officer wants to give you some. I would make an appointment now.

And get your taxes done ASAP. You will need them to fill out the FAFSA.

[Anonymous]

Gosh, Op, you sound like are doing all that you can do. Not all stepmoms would be as helpful as you are being. If the mom makes so little money and your DH isn't asking for a contribution from her, then I don't understand why she is objecting to filling out the form. It takes all sorts of people. Good luck -- I hope that everything works out for all of you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plus loans are more expensive and don't have the great payback options of the other loans.

What payback options are you referring to? We have a plus loan and we have a monthly payment we make. We can pay the full amount any time we want. What payback options do other loans offer that are not available to us? We have two more kids coming up...we'll switch to private loans if they're superior in some way. All rates I've seen have been higher than what the plus loan offers.