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January 11, 2006
More financial aid
More recommendations:
- keep copies of everything!
- some schools may require forms above and beyond the FAFSA (not Albright) so be aware of what all your schools require
- certain questions that the most errors are made on are: # of family members in college, gross income, and investment amount, ask questions about these areas if you are not sure of the correct answers.
- in a divorce situation, the custodial parent (the parent you lived with more during the past 12 months) will complete the FAFSA's parent section
- if the custodial parent is remarried, the step-parent's information must also be included
- if you complete an online FAFSA your pin number is your signature. If you do not have a pin number you must mail in a signature page or your FAFSA will not be processed
- please double check that your Social Security number is correct
More to come!!!!!!
Posted by Chris Boehm at January 11, 2006 9:47 AM
Comments
I just finished filling out the FAFSA. What a surprise I received at the end. I have saved as much as I could for my 17 year old daughter's entire life, and now I have a total of $28K saved for her college education. I am a military officer with a middle-class income. According to the FAFSA formula, my EFC, or the amount I am expected to able to spend EACH YEAR, for my daughter's college expenses, is over $30,000!! At that rate, I would deplete her entire college fund and more in the first year. Obviously with that high of an EFC, she won't qualify for any need-based aid, and probably not even for work study. The fact is if you're middle class in this country, you don't have enough to pay for college, and you have too much to qualifiy for any help, so the only way to get through college is to borrow huge amounts (and with this week's irresponsible budget bill tht will raise interest rates on student loans, that will be even more expensive too).
Posted by: John Spurliln at February 4, 2006 5:02 PM
John,
The middle class does get squeezed when it comes to financial aid. Trust me that this is not an Albright decision, but your Congressmen's. The government does require families to plan and stretch themselves for a college education. Borrowing is still the best investment that you can make, that doesn't make it any easier. In attempting to treat everyone equally in the financial aid process the FAFSA has made it very difficult on the middle class.
I have a two year old and we are putting away about what you have for your daughter and I know that it won't even put a dent in what will be expected of us.
Albright, no matter the EFC will evaluate the family for all merit and need based institutional funds. I highly recommend that families search for outside funds through clubs, employers, churches, and other avenues. High school guidance offices usually have a lot of information concerning local opportunities as well.
Chris
Posted by: Chris Boehm at February 6, 2006 8:21 AM