Personal Income and FAP Eligibility

[Holland]

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I tried applying for AAMC FAP at the end of last year, and while I would've qualified easily and submitted all of my information before the deadline, they didn't finish reviewing my application by the deadline and once the deadline actually came around, they just dropped the whole thing. I had no reason to think this would happen and it wasn't made clear by any of the wording from the stuff that I had read. I think the whole situation was complete BS but that's neither here nor there.

The fact of the matter is that now I need to apply again this year, and I just started my new application. However, I'm not sure about how to interpret whether my family income falls below the threshold. This is because I have a ton of financial aid from college (full tuition, books, and fees, and then ~15k on living expenses). Since fin aid for living expenses is counted as personal income for the sake of FAP and I also made money through a summer job, I have a non-negligible amount of income of my own. This means that while my parental income falls below the cutoff and my personal 'income' falls below the cutoff, our combined income goes above the cutoff. I know that family income and applicant income are reported under two separate sections in the application, but I'm unsure of whether they would still combine our incomes because my mom still lists me as a dependent (i.e. our household size is 3 because it counts my mom, stepdad, and me).

Any and all guidance would be greatly appreciated--the FAP benefits would be super helpful to me and it would kind of suck if the year where I finally get to apply for them is also the first year in my family's life where we don't qualify.

 

[LizzyM]

The following information is taken directly from the AAMC info on FAP:

Unlike some federally funded aid programs, the Fee Assistance Program requires your parents’ financial information, if you are under age 26 at the time of submission. Your parents' financial information and supporting tax documentation are required regardless of your marital status, your tax filing status (independent or dependent), your parents' country of residence, or whether your parents are willing to provide documentation. If your parents are deceased, further information will not be asked. To learn more about the parental information requirement, please visit the 2022 Fee Assistance Program Essentials.

Fee Assistance Program award approval is tied directly to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' poverty level guidelines. In 2022, you will be granted fee assistance if each household reported on your application has a 2021 total family income that is 400 percent or less than the 2021 national poverty level for that family size.

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I'm taking this to mean that if you, as a household, and your mom & stepdad as a household, each fall below the threshold for households of one and two persons respectively, then you qualify.

If you had a large income (>$51K) and your parents did not, or if your parents had a large income (>$69K) and you did not, then you would not qualify because it would be expected that your parents would have the funds to help you out.

Good luck with FAP this time around.