Fafsa

[rexosaurus]

Hey guys, so I'm afraid I screwed up REALLY bad....

My FAFSA was due the 1st of March, and my dumb @** submitted today.. Do you think this is the end of the world? Will I still get student aid for the coming year? Holy crap if I don't life is going to suck! I need your input!

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[LVT2DVM]

This isnt an answer...but God I hope not because some of us havent even heard whether we've been accepted or not. How can we file a FAFSA when we dont know what schools to put down. Do we just put all the ones we think we may go to? I guess I better get on the ball as well.

 

[clawsbeatskin]

I was told to fill out the FAFSA and enter all of the schools, whether you've heard about acceptance or not. There was a thread about this earlier, and I'm pretty sure that's how I knew to do that.

Rex, I remember a couple of years ago I filled out my FAFSA way late, like in January for that Spring (should have been filled out by March of the previous year!) and my school was still able to secure emergency loans for me. I would call the school so you're not freaking out unless you have to

 

[Danaish72]

I'll be submitting mine this weekend, Illinois said to wait until after your taxes are done, which I'm just finishing, unfortunately I think that screws up the health student loan. I don't think it has any bearing on the overall FAFSA though. Please correct me if I'm mistaken though.

 

[wi girl]

(a) I put down all the schools I could potentially go to (waitlisted/accepted)
(b) Call on monday to explain the situation -- hopefully you have an excuse of some nature?
I can't imagine you wouldn't get NO aid -- a lot of schools don't have deadlines until later. You MIGHT be penalized by getting less aid, but this would be very odd -- since most students get full federal loans, and the school expect that. I don't even KNOW wi's -- I just started because cornell undergrad has an early deadline that I'm used to.


Good luck!

 

[athenaparthenos]

I put down all 3 schools that gave me interviews and submitted mine by the end of January/beginning of February to be safe.

 

[ri23]

March 1st is the priority deadline, not the final deadline. It is obviously best to get it in before the priority deadine, but I'm not sure what you aren't eligible for if you don't.

Also, if you are still waiting fill it out with the information for all of the schools you could potentially go to.

 

[lailanni]

Yep, that's what I got in my info packet that March 1st was the recommended time to turn it in, but you can for sure do it later than that. Don't worry, you're not screwed!

I didn't have my taxes done when filing the FAFSA, so some of my info needs to be updated when taxes are complete. You are able to change your input to some extent afterwards.

To my knowledge, you fill it out, send to it to all schools, if accepted they'll get back to you with your finance options available.

 

[Rebeki]

I had almost given up on getting in anywhere and let the FAFSA slide, so now that I did get in - I have to get my FAFSA done. Thing is that I definitely have to wait for our accountant to get done with our taxes because my husband's taxes are confusing and I couldn't figure out how to estimate the taxes even with the FAFSA worksheet

Does anyone know where one can get clear information about what loans are available? I'm confused about this...I know there's the Stafford loans and what is the deal with the health professions loans? Is there a thread about this somewhere...maybe I should look for that

 

[rexosaurus]

Oh thank you guys so much! i was freaking out about this.... i don't need anymore debt than i'm going to have! whew!

 

[Habibti]

I had almost given up on getting in anywhere and let the FAFSA slide, so now that I did get in - I have to get my FAFSA done. Thing is that I definitely have to wait for our accountant to get done with our taxes because my husband's taxes are confusing and I couldn't figure out how to estimate the taxes even with the FAFSA worksheet

Does anyone know where one can get clear information about what loans are available? I'm confused about this...I know there's the Stafford loans and what is the deal with the health professions loans? Is there a thread about this somewhere...maybe I should look for that

You got accepted to Madison, right?

If so, we don't have health professions loans (vet school was established after these funds were divied to the university out)

As for other loans, you turn in your FAFSA, they'll send you info about what loans/work study they're offering you. Subsidized stafford has a limit of, I think, $8500 per year. I also got Perkins (can't remember offhand how much for). And the rest was unsubsidized stafford.

 

[soxbox]

we had a fin. aid meeting at CSU a couple weeks ago... they told us pretty much that you need to have it done by March 15th to ensure that they dont run out of some of the loans (like Health Professional Loan)... even though the due date said March 1st (though she really wanted it done by then but said the 15th was still OK). She did say that they NEVER run out of the Stafford loans or one of the other bigger loans (dont remember the name off the top of my head).... and if you want work study you have to request it because they can and do run out of work study money....

 

[Danaish72]

Are anyone else's parents giving them a hard time about all the information the FAFSA wants us to disclose about them? My parents really don't understand why FAFSA would need their tax information as I will be completely independent after I graduate in May. I completely agree with them. Does anyone know why my financial aid (specifically the Health Students loan) would be contingent on my parents' income? I really hate these forms, they're so invasive. Thoughts?

 

[rexosaurus]

From what I understand, they need your parents info for scholarships and such. It can't hurt you, only help you. I'm not too familiar with the Health Professions Loans though, maybe someone else can provide some insight to that one.

 

[Rebeki]

Are anyone else's parents giving them a hard time about all the information the FAFSA wants us to disclose about them? My parents really don't understand why FAFSA would need their tax information as I will be completely independent after I graduate in May. I completely agree with them. Does anyone know why my financial aid (specifically the Health Students loan) would be contingent on my parents' income? I really hate these forms, they're so invasive. Thoughts?

The fafsa doesn't need your parents information if you are going into a graduate program.

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fafsaws89c.pdf This worksheet explains this in Section 2 - Student Dependency Status.

However, I know that some schools do require this information for their need based aid so I would definitely check with your school.

 

[VAgirl]

Ok, there is a lot of misinformation and partial information out there, so you really need to talk to a financial aid person to get the full scoop. But in terms of parent info, you only need that to qualify for the Health Professions Student Loan. It won't be looked at for any other loan and won't hurt your chances of getting those other loans.

However, I just recently found out that some vets schools don't even have the HPSL anymore (or maybe never did). So if you know what school you'll be going to, it couldn't hurt to call and even see if they have any HPSL money. If not, your parents info is totally unnecessary.

But on your original question, Danaish, yea, my parents were uneasy about providing their info, too. I've been independent for 5 years and they're not thrilled with providing every last little detail of their holdings. Especially because they didn't think I'd have a chance at qualifying for need-based funds if their financial information was looked at along with mine. But they capitulated in the end and gave me their info for my FAFSA. I'm sure your parents will come around. It is tough to swallow, though. Hang in there.

 

[VA Cj]

Im 44yrs old my mother died a long time ago and my dad is somewhere in England I havent heard from him in years, his family probably put him in a old folks home or something, (anyway they wont tell me anything) Long story as to why but I dont mind explaining if ness.

Anyways, do I have to submit anything about my dad since I have no clue where he is??? I know that he does get a SS check and a Brittish & Canadian pension but Im sure my blood sucking relatives have been spending that on him!

He has alzimers and has had it for a long time now.

So do I still have to even include my parents on the FAFSA?

I have been completely independent for years now! I am married with two grown children as well.

 

[Steelmagghia]

I don't know if this is helpful, but it doesn't affect your EFC to include your parental information for the HPL stuff. Mine still shows an EFC of zero with my parent info in there while my sister's is considerably higher than that because she is not independent.
VA cj, I would absolutely contact your school. Your circumstances seem a bit extreme and there may be something you can do that is a little different.

Sorry if this wasn't helpful!

 

[VA Cj]

I don't know if this is helpful, but it doesn't affect your EFC to include your parental information for the HPL stuff. Mine still shows an EFC of zero with my parent info in there while my sister's is considerably higher than that because she is not independent.
VA cj, I would absolutely contact your school. Your circumstances seem a bit extreme and there may be something you can do that is a little different.

Sorry if this wasn't helpful!

Thanks Steelmagghia, I will look into it, if I do choose to go to SPC then I will ask about either leaveing my dad out of the form or adding him in to it even though I have no clue where he is or really even if he is still in England.

 

[VAgirl]

Thanks Steelmagghia, I will look into it, if I do choose to go to SPC then I will ask about either leaveing my dad out of the form or adding him in to it even though I have no clue where he is or really even if he is still in England.

VA cj, I'm very unclear on what you're applying for. Aren't you trying to go to vet tech school? If so, I don't think the Health Professions Student Loans is applicable and therefore you wouldn't need your parents info at all. It's only for that one loan.

I'm not even sure what types of programs one needs to fill out the FAFSA for. I guess it covers undergrad and graduate education, so I guess your program would fall under the undergrad side of things? But I have no idea so I'll stop speculating on that now.