FAFSA is forcing me to have a "household size: 3" if I include my parents info. Are we supposed to put 3 even if that's a lie?

[NegativeMargin]

I'll be 30 when I matriculate and haven't lived with my parents for quite a while. I need to include them in my FAFSA for need-based aid from my institution. If I include them there are certain boxes that get greyed out and auto-filled, meaning I can't adjust them.

Your Parent's Household Size: 3

Is one of those boxes. It's not technically the truth, but the only way to include my parents info in the FAFSA is to fill it out including them, which means including this as well.

Number of people in college in household

This is another one. Clearly they want me to put myself down there, and they actually don't accept an answer of '0' because obviously I'll be in college if I'm filling this out.

just wondering if I am supposed to just ignore how stupid this is and accept what they need even if it's not accurate.

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[KnightDoc]

You are fine, and it's not a lie! If they want your parents' income, your parents need to be included in the household number. If this weren't the case, your EFC would be even higher because the income would be calculated to be supporting a smaller household that didn't include them!

Same with college. It's not stupid, it's not inaccurate, and includes med school in your case. It's meant to make allowances for additional people in college or grad school being supported by you and your parents. If the number was zero, you wouldn't be eligible for any loans or other aid! That's why it can't go below 1.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

That's unusual. Is requiring parents' info a school-specific policy? Typically for FAFSA you don't need to include your parents information if you are older than 24 on January 1st of year in question or if you are applying to graduate school.

 

[NegativeMargin]

That's unusual. Is requiring parents' info a school-specific policy? Typically for FAFSA you don't need to include your parents information if you are older than 24 on January 1st of year in question or if you are applying to graduate school.

For certain school's specific aid, much like for the FAP through AMCAS, they don't care about your independent status or age, they want your parents financials. For the FAP you can somewhat contest this if you literally are not in contact with your family and thus wouldn't be able to provide their info. Perhaps most schools who do this also have such a form, but I'm not the kind of person to play that game when it isn't true, so I contacted my family and had them log in with their FSAID and fill out their portion of my FAFSA.

As for my particular school they say my parents information and my EFC value would not be used to determine any loan amounts, it would only qualify/disqualify me from any need based aid. From my meeting with financial aid personnel their stance is understandable:

Since the majority of people going into medical school are college-aged kids who have spent the previous years not working and just going to school, the FAFSA becomes less valuable as a tool to gauge people's actual need. As an example, I am 29, have lived the majority of my life under the poverty threshold, including my time in undergrad and my parents combined have made less than the average income of a single household during that time.. compared to a 26 year old who's family represents the average med-school matriculants, they could make their FAFSA look exactly like mine since they could refuse to provide their parents information.

So really it's a system that's designed for me, I just don't really appreciate having to fill-out the forms the way I had to, even if they were simply designed like that so their usual demographics can fill them out easily. As someone who's had to fill out their own FAFSA without their parents for my entire undergrad, it just seemed a bit off. I ended up with an EFC of 0 anyway, so I'll likely qualify for whatever need-based aid they can provide.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

For certain school's specific aid, much like for the FAP through AMCAS, they don't care about your independent status or age, they want your parents financials. For the FAP you can somewhat contest this if you literally are not in contact with your family and thus wouldn't be able to provide their info. Perhaps most schools who do this also have such a form, but I'm not the kind of person to play that game when it isn't true, so I contacted my family and had them log in with their FSAID and fill out their portion of my FAFSA.

As for my particular school they say my parents information and my EFC value would not be used to determine any loan amounts, it would only qualify/disqualify me from any need based aid. From my meeting with financial aid personnel their stance is understandable:

Since the majority of people going into medical school are college-aged kids who have spent the previous years not working and just going to school, the FAFSA becomes less valuable as a tool to gauge people's actual need. As an example, I am 29, have lived the majority of my life under the poverty threshold, including my time in undergrad and my parents combined have made less than the average income of a single household during that time.. compared to a 26 year old who's family represents the average med-school matriculants, they could make their FAFSA look exactly like mine since they could refuse to provide their parents information.

So really it's a system that's designed for me, I just don't really appreciate having to fill-out the forms the way I had to, even if they were simply designed like that so their usual demographics can fill them out easily. As someone who's had to fill out their own FAFSA without their parents for my entire undergrad, it just seemed a bit off. I ended up with an EFC of 0 anyway, so I'll likely qualify for whatever need-based aid they can provide.

I was trying to be helpful since I’m your age, filled out FAFSA every year and paid for college myself. I don’t know why I bothered. You obviously understand the process already.

 

[NegativeMargin]

I was trying to be helpful since I’m your age, filled out FAFSA every year and paid for college myself. I don’t know why I bothered. You obviously understand the process already.

Oh, well thanks for that. I guess I was just trying to be helpful too