okay, some clarifications. Applying to graduate school, the EFC on your FAFSA has NOTHING to do with your parent earnings/savings etc. Those of us with high EFC's are those of us with current cash flow from a job (many non-trads applying from the work-force have EFC far above what they can actually contribute). This EFC will nose dive next year when you are a full time student.
In response to the OP, yes, get rid of that money! Just because having or not having it may not have a huge impact on your FAFSA EFC, this does not mean it will not impact your financial aid package.
I have about 4k in my bank account in savings and this is all the money I have in the world (no trust funds hidden away, no rich grandparents holding money for me, not a cent in investments). This money is the little I have put away from my job over the last two years and I was planning on spending the vast majority of it on some traveling this summer before I stop having summers. I reported it on my FAFSA and Need Access forms (necessary for some schools, not all- don't freak out)
Just a few weeks ago I had a meeting with the director of financial aid at a medical school I have been accepted to and she told me that I would be expected to cough up a good chunck of those savings as part of my first year financial aid package. She even went as far as advising me to use it towards getting rid of some of my undergraduate debt. She said that if I did this she would consider it a legitimate expense and remove the money from what I had reported, thus reducing the amount I would be expected to contribute. She also said that purchasing a computer was a legitimate expense. She said that spending the money on a nice vacation would be a personal choice and not be considered an okay use of that money and that if I did they would not be able to take money away from what I had previously reported.
