What is financial aid based on?

[jecrunner]

I applied to medical schools for fall 2008 and am trying to beef up my knowledge about financial aid in the meantime....I have been working full-time for two years now, making a pretty decent salary. When I fill out the forms for financial aid (fasfa, I'm assuming), will my current salary be factored in to how much money I can be awarded? Obviously, I will no longer be making this money once in school so I'm wondering how they take that into account.
Also, I've heard that your parent's income is factored in as well? I'm a non-trad student (24 years old) and have been living on my own for 2+ years and been completely independent of my parents. So it seems ridiculous to me that my parent's income would be considered..
Anyway, any insight would be AWESOME! Thank you in advance for your help.

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[alwaysaangel]

I applied to medical schools for fall 2008 and am trying to beef up my knowledge about financial aid in the meantime....I have been working full-time for two years now, making a pretty decent salary. When I fill out the forms for financial aid (fasfa, I'm assuming), will my current salary be factored in to how much money I can be awarded? Obviously, I will no longer be making this money once in school so I'm wondering how they take that into account.
Also, I've heard that your parent's income is factored in as well? I'm a non-trad student (24 years old) and have been living on my own for 2+ years and been completely independent of my parents. So it seems ridiculous to me that my parent's income would be considered..
Anyway, any insight would be AWESOME! Thank you in advance for your help.

Your income will be factored in to a point, but not drastically since you will no longer be making that income next year. But any "expected contribution" they get from your income you can take out in loans if you don't have any savings.

Yes, your parental income will be required. There are some 30 yo's married with kids who had to give the school their parental income in my class. Basically at this point in med school its too hard to tell who is really independent and who's not. Plus its hard to compare a bunch of broke 22-24 yos and decide who gets free money and who doesn't. So they use parental income instead.

But thats only for free money (grants/scholarship) - no matter what they will let you pull the cost of attendance out in loans (stafford loans and gradPLUS loans).

 

[mshheaddoc]

I applied to medical schools for fall 2008 and am trying to beef up my knowledge about financial aid in the meantime....I have been working full-time for two years now, making a pretty decent salary. When I fill out the forms for financial aid (fasfa, I'm assuming), will my current salary be factored in to how much money I can be awarded? Obviously, I will no longer be making this money once in school so I'm wondering how they take that into account.
Also, I've heard that your parent's income is factored in as well? I'm a non-trad student (24 years old) and have been living on my own for 2+ years and been completely independent of my parents. So it seems ridiculous to me that my parent's income would be considered..
Anyway, any insight would be AWESOME! Thank you in advance for your help.

Your salary would only be looked at for subsidized loans but I've heard many still get the max since its known you won't be working.

Your PARENTS INCOME will NOT be required for your FASFA. While this is a common misperception, the only people that will ask for that information will be your medical schools. Many base your "need based scholarships" on parental income, where you grew up, what high school you attended, etc. So many schools if you are applying for their scholarships they will require this. You DO NOT need to submit for general stafford aid for most schools.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Your salary would only be looked at for subsidized loans but I've heard many still get the max since its known you won't be working.

Your PARENTS INCOME will NOT be required for your FASFA. While this is a common misperception, the only people that will ask for that information will be your medical schools. Many base your "need based scholarships" on parental income, where you grew up, what high school you attended, etc. So many schools if you are applying for their scholarships they will require this. You DO NOT need to submit for general stafford aid for most schools.

But if you want the free money most make you add the parental income to the FAFSA - both the schools I went through the fin aid thing did. They wanted the IRS forms but they also wanted it actually on the FAFSA.

 

[jecrunner]

Thank you both for your replies...I really need to educate myself more about this whole process.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

But if you want the free money most make you add the parental income to the FAFSA - both the schools I went through the fin aid thing did. They wanted the IRS forms but they also wanted it actually on the FAFSA.

It really depends on the school. My school doesn't seem to care because I got scholarships and grants both with submitting parental information and without submitting parental information. However, my school doesn't have a ton of need-based aid, so it's not a big thing with them.

The thing is that it can't hurt to submit parental information, so it's probably a good idea to do it at least for your first year.

As for the student's past income, anecdotally I've heard your ability to get subsidized Staffords will generally be affected only if you hit six figure income before going to school. And even then it depends on how expensive your school is.