FAFSA deadline March 1st

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R1krazy

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Why does the FAFSA suggest medical students enter their parents information even if you have been determined to be Independent???

I have heard it is for certain scholarships depending on your family specifics.

Does anyone have a better answer about whether to list your family or not.

My assumption is not to, because of the expected family contribution may be impacted.

Please correct me if Im wrong.

Thanks for the help
 
EFC isn't changed by it because you are an independent student. It is only used in some cases of need-based financial aid. There are some state and local scholarships, for instance, that require that information. Some primary care loan programs require it. Due to very limited funds they want to be sure that only the very neediest people get those resources.
 
The federal government considers you independent, but most medical schools will not. So, if you want the chance at any institutional loans or grants, you must enter your parents info and, yes, medical schools will expect them to contribute to your medical education. You don't really have much of a choice.
 
BigRedPremed said:
The federal government considers you independent, but most medical schools will not. So, if you want the chance at any institutional loans or grants, you must enter your parents info and, yes, medical schools will expect them to contribute to your medical education. You don't really have much of a choice.
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How do you know which med schools do this? Just ask the fin aid office?
 
scpod said:
Nah... no matter what your EFC is you can elect to take out the max in loans. It doesn't work the same as it did in undergrad. Your family won't have to pay a dime.
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Not what I've been told at 10 medical school interviews. Every single med school I've interviewed at so far has given us the "We know fed govt considers you independent but we need your parents' info if you want to qualify for institutional aid" line. I'm in the process of applying for FA at my accepted schools and every med school has requested my parents' W-2's and tax returns in addition to my own.

You always have the option to go to private lenders. duh But, I have yet to see a single medical school (allopathic at least) willing to give you institutional grants w/o seeing your parents' info first. The reason being, medical schools have limited money to give out and will only give the money to the neediest students (meaning, yes, they do expect familial support).

Even the federal government will require parental information if you want to be considered for Title 7 funds.
 
They want your parents info, but it isn't to determine how much aid you are eligible for.
 
TexasTriathlete said:
They want your parents info, but it isn't to determine how much aid you are eligible for.
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Uggh! I really hope I don't have to ask my parents for their financial info. And who do they want me to ask? My dad and stepmom? Mom and stepdad? All of the above?
 
BigRedPremed said:
Every single med school I've interviewed at so far has given us the "We know fed govt considers you independent but we need your parents' info if you want to qualify for institutional aid" line.
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Yes, if you want institutional aid in many cases, you'll want to put there info on the FAFSA. However, Federal Stafford and Grad Plus loans will more than pay for any medical education and you need and you never put a single thing about your parents on the form for that.
 
EEL08 said:
Uggh! I really hope I don't have to ask my parents for their financial info. And who do they want me to ask? My dad and stepmom? Mom and stepdad? All of the above?
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This is probably something you should ask the FA office at your school.

I interviewed at WashU on Friday and they addressed this very issue: If your parents are divorced, they (meaning WashU) want the information for your biological parents only. If your biological father/stepmom, biological mother/stepdad file jointly, then send both sets of tax returns but they will only consider income from your biological parents (the idea is that they didn't want to penalize you for having 2 sets of parents). Again, this policy is WashU-specific.
 
scpod said:
Yes, if you want institutional aid in many cases, you'll want to put there info on the FAFSA. However, Federal Stafford and Grad Plus loans will more than pay for any medical education and you need and you never put a single thing about your parents on the form for that.
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Correct. But, is there any situation where you wouldn't want the chance at institutional aid?
 
I am 30 years old, and my mom will give me the finger if I ask her to contribute to my medical education. I told them this at my school, which takes a lot of older non-trad students, and they said that they just needed info from one parent, and that it wouldn't determine how much aid I was eligible for.
 
BigRedPremed said:
Correct. But, is there any situation where you wouldn't want the chance at institutional aid?
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Few osteopathic schools have much of that available. For the aid that IS available at my school, I'm not required to provide any parental information. Many schools have a separate form of their own for institutional aid.
 
scpod said:
Few osteopathic schools have much of that available. For the aid that IS available at my school, I'm not required to provide any parental information.
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Few allopathic schools have much of that available also :laugh: That's why they want your parent info in order to distribute aid to the neediest students. It's pretty cool that your school doesn't want your parental info. I have yet to see any of my schools grant this allowance.

I can see how non-trads wouldn't want to burden their parents though. I'm only 22 and my parents are still willing to contribute to my med education 🙂
 
So if I turned in my FAFSA yesterday and did not include parental data, should I contact the school and make sure that I need to? I heard a lot of conflicting info on the interview trail about this and thought it was finally resolved to not having to submit the info and now I am confused.
 
t-funk said:
So if I turned in my FAFSA yesterday and did not include parental data, should I contact the school and make sure that I need to? I heard a lot of conflicting info on the interview trail about this and thought it was finally resolved to not having to submit the info and now I am confused.
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Maybe osteopathic schools are different as it doesn't seem like the osteopathic posters on this thread are suggesting putting down parental info.

Allopathic schools are pretty clear though: they want parental info.
 
BigRedPremed said:
Maybe osteopathic schools are different as it doesn't seem like the osteopathic posters on this thread are suggesting putting down parental info.

Allopathic schools are pretty clear though: they want parental info.
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I guess I'll have to check in to it bc I submitted my FAFSA to two schools; an osteopathic school and my state allopathic which I am still waiting to hear word back from. The point was not to have to do it again but it looks like I may have to anyway. 🙁
 
FAFSA deadline is June 30 http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

I submitted my FAFSA last year without parental info and I was fine. You are considered independent anyway b/c you are in graduate school.

t-funk...you will be fine.
 
June 30 is for the Fed govt, but for the institutional aid it is March 1st!
 
does it even really matter? It's not like the federal government will adjust how much subsidized or unsubsidized loans you get based on how much money your parents have, right?
 
R1krazy said:
June 30 is for the Fed govt, but for the institutional aid it is March 1st!
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This is surprising to me, not saying that it is wrong, but I don't understand. I assume that the class is 100% full and that each student is 100% committed to going to that school, even though many schools continue interviewing thru April and waitlists move until the day school starts.

Bond8204 said:
does it even really matter? It's not like the federal government will adjust how much subsidized or unsubsidized loans you get based on how much money your parents have, right?
Click to expand...

No...federal aid is NOT based on your parents income for graduate school. Your parents could have no money or be Bill Gates and your federal aid is not changed.
 
I sure didn't put my parents on my fafsa. My parents are way older than the average 23 year old's parents. My Dad is retired and close to 70, I'd rather hope they aren't expected to give anything for my further education. Such as it is, it doesn't really matter since the school I picked doesn't ask that I give it anyways.
 
nascardoc said:
This is surprising to me, not saying that it is wrong, but I don't understand. I assume that the class is 100% full and that each student is 100% committed to going to that school, even though many schools continue interviewing thru April and waitlists move until the day school starts.



No...federal aid is NOT based on your parents income for graduate school. Your parents could have no money or be Bill Gates and your federal aid is not changed.
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Do schools give that much institutional aid? Unless they're trying to recruit you, I can't really imagine any other reason why you should deserve not to take loans from the government and somebody else shouldn't (i.e. there shouldn't really be a "need based" type aid program in most schools).
 
I'm pretty sure NYCOM says NOT to include any parental info on the fafsa...
 
I am almost positive about this because I talked to a FA office: you do not have to submit your parents data no matter what (even for institutional aid) after the age of 24 because you are, according to the federal government, not your parents responsibility any longer. Those of us under, may have to. However, at both my LECOM interviews I was told to submit my information, only.
 
most schools say to not submit parental tax information on the FAFSA. I would say this is a good idea. They do ask for parental tax info for the school's individual awards given out by the school itself.
 
BigRedPremed said:
The federal government considers you independent, but most medical schools will not. So, if you want the chance at any institutional loans or grants, you must enter your parents info and, yes, medical schools will expect them to contribute to your medical education. You don't really have much of a choice.
Click to expand...

I think they are asking you to submit your parents info because you are under 24.
 
Nascardoc is a jerk....

Also, I never put my parent's information on my FAFSA. I don't get any help from them (I think they would if they could, but 👎 to being poor) and no one ever told me I had to.
 
MaximusD said:
Is it seriously March 1st??? ****.
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Marthea007 said:
That was my thought. I know what I'm doing tonight!!

Also, I never put my parent's information on my FAFSA. I don't get any help from them (I think they would if they could, but 👎 to being poor) and no one ever told me I had to.
Click to expand...

The FAFSA deadline is June 30, NOT March 1.
 
nascardoc said:
The FAFSA deadline is June 30, NOT March 1.
Click to expand...

No need to be rude, I just didn't read all of the thread before I posted... GOSH!

Also, this guy is way killing me....
 
I did not put my parents information on mine. I wouldn't even know where to start with that. I'm 30 and have been married for 5 years. Parents are divorced, mom's retired, step-dad always files an extension on his taxes. I haven't received financially support from them in a decade. They are just going to have to make do without it. Hopefully that doesn't bite me in the bum. I understand wanting a 22 yr old straight-outta-undergrad-type's parental information, but mine? That's just ludicrious, I tell you, ludicrious!

I remember that Touro-NV stressed that we had to have parental info even if we were 50 years old, but none of my other allo or osteo schools did.
 
Perhaps you need parental info for FA from the school you are attending (if you are getting loans, grants, etc. from the school itself - but I can't say for sure b/c we don't have that at DCOM), but as for federal loans and most private loans, YOU DO NOT NEED YOUR PARENTS INCOME INFO. Even if you put it on there, it won't matter b/c you are considered an independent b/c you are in graduate school, regardless of your age.
 
I was told it never hurts to put your parents info down. At MSUCOM I was told its highly recommend by them that you should put your parents info down. If your poor (like me) it might be a benefit, because I hear they do provide need based aid to students at medical schools.
 
Let's see if I can give a good explanation here that might settle some things....

You DON'T have to put your parental information down because you will qualify for enough money to pay for school anyway. It will NOT hurt you to put their information down, though, because it will NOT change the amount of aid you are qualified for.

Why then do some schools want you to put down parental information? There is some aid available at some schools-- not all-- that is reserved for the very neediest of students. They want to know that not only are YOU needy, but ALSO that your parents are needy as well. Why? Because even if your parents haven't supported you in years, many parents still do nice things for their kids. They might buy you a plane ticket home for a weekend, or help buy some school books, or help with a down payment on a new car or a new transmission for your clunker. They want to give that aid to people whose parents don't have the ability to help them at all-- the truly neediest of the needy.

I'm 43 years old, and if my mom was still alive she'd be sending me stuff by mail-- even if it's just new underwear and socks. If your parents have the ability to send you new underwear and socks, then you probably won't get that need-based aid anyway. But it still won't hurt you to put the info down.
 
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