So whats the final word: FASA yes or no to parental info

kbear12 said:

hey narc, i'm almost positive that BU requires parental info on the FAFSA (look at your acceptance packet). if one school requires it, then you'll need to do it.

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BU will not process your financial aid without parental info.

Towelie said:

Virtually every school requires parental info. If you apply to a school that does not, then submit the FAFSA first to that school without the parental info, and then to subsequent schools with the parental info.

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Neither of the state schools I visited recently did. Staffords covered nearly the entire budget, so there was no need to anyway.

Parental info was required for separate financial aid, but the school I picked had a different form outside of the FAFSA.

You should get $38,500 for Staffords regardless of mom and pop since you're an independent student if you're in med school. $8,500 of it is subsidized and thus need-based, but you'd have to make pretty decent bank to be eliminated from that money (i.e. enough to where you should have saved at least $8,500 of it for med school).

For the private schools that often have a lot more cash to divide to go along with the exhorbitant tuition, they may want to see the parental income before they decide what they're willing to give you beyond the Staffords, but really just check with the school after you've made your decision.

You don't need it. Period.

Wizard of Oz said:

Neither of the state schools I visited recently did. Staffords covered nearly the entire budget, so there was no need to anyway.

Parental info was required for separate financial aid, but the school I picked had a different form outside of the FAFSA.

You should get $38,500 for Staffords regardless of mom and pop since you're an independent student if you're in med school. $8,500 of it is subsidized and thus need-based, but you'd have to make pretty decent bank to be eliminated from that money (i.e. enough to where you should have saved at least $8,500 of it for med school).

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exactly

Eric Lindros said:

You don't need it. Period.

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except in those cases where the school requires it. that and if you've filed as an independent, your parents' income isn't factored into your finaid package (or so i've heard on my interview day).

Help me out here. What is the downside of filling out parental info in any case if you are worried about it?

It will not be used for Staffords any which way, so you're going to be eligible for $38,500 regardless of whether you put it on there or not given that you're not already topped off on federal money and you're income is not too high for subsidized Staffords ($8,500 of the above-mentioned chunk).

Also explain to me how you can not be "independent." Are there schools out there who trump the federal requirements for declaring independent status. Please give me some links--I wanna know if there are.

foofish said:

Schools aren't going to suddenly declare that your parents have to pay for med school. Since almost all students starting med school are not working (or not earning much) and would be considered in need, schools need a way to distinguish among people help distribute their limited amount of scholarship dollars....the theory being that the student with parents with low incomes (or whose parents are deceased, etc.), and therefore has no family resources to fall back on is in greater need for scholarship money than the students who, while independent, has parents pulling in six or seven figures, or a trust fund they'll come into at 25, etc.

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I'll buy that argument for need-based scholarships, but all they need to do to cover this is say on their scholarship application that if you want to be considered for award X or Y, then you must have parental info.

The school should have this policy spelled out for you.

alwaysaangel said:

FAFSA will not require parental info. Period. Everyone about to enter medical school checks that they are going for a doctoral degree which immediately makes you "independent" as far as FAFSA is concerned. Nothing else matters. What your parents declare on their taxes doesn't matter, what your age is doesn't matter. You are independent.

Now, should you put it your parents info despite that? If your parents don't make much and you want to be considered for institutional grants and loans then yes. If you won't get institutional aid anyway then you don't have to put parental info.

Even BU, granted I just looked at their website but it looks like parental info is only required if you want to be considered for institutional aid. I can't imagine any school requiring parental info if you don't want institutional aid.

So OP - it sounds like you shouldn't put your parental info down.

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I agree with everything said here, and the BU thing makes a lot more sense in this context. You are independent if you are pursuing a doctoral degree, so your first statement is false. You WILL be eligible for $30,000 for sure, $38,500 if you don't have a substantial income.

When filling out the FAFSA, is there a way to indicate that you didn't fill out a 1040 because you didn't make any money? I assume so, but I've never been in that situation before myself.

I thus wouldn't mess with the parental info for the FAFSA, especially if you haven't decided on what school you're going to attend.

One other point, doesn't the online FAFSA tell you as you're filling it out that you DON'T have to submit parental info unless you want to once they've decided you're independent?

So that's my advice to the OP as far as the FAFSA is concerned, for others who are filling out scholarship applications because they've been accepted...

If a school gives free money to people based on parental income from non-federal funds, then you obviously can't just omit that info from your application and expect to get the money, eh? Schools aren't that dumb. Of course people lie and don't get caught, but I wouldn't encourage that risk.

If you guys are paranoid, you can't be penalized for putting it on the application. If they needed it for scholarships, you're good. If you omitted it and they want it, well you can give them the info another way or go back and make a correction, whatever; but if you then continue to omit it, they're just not going to give you anything.

Doubts? That's what financial aid offices are for. Drop 'em an email if you don't believe us.