Does having a paid job affect financial aid?

cptofthehouse
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:54:57 +0000

As a student, you can make up to about $6K before your earnings affect your aid. Do run the numbers though the FAFSA calculator to be sure. If you have other income this may not be the case, but that is the usual result.

What can make a big difference to a student is how much money or other assets s/he has sitting there on the day FAFSA or PROFILE is filled out. If you are accumulating money, saving it, investing it better to reimburse your parents for expenses and have them save it for you in an account in their names and ssns since they get a protection allowance and are assessed at about 5% of assets whereas you get no allowance and get hit 20% right to the EFC.

Be aware that you are completing federal forms here and the penalities for fraud on them can be hefty. Whether a college can find out if you have a job or not, no one can answer. Colleges have found out a lot of thing that students, parents wanted to keep hidden. The question is whether you are doing the right thing here. The legal thing. The question you are asking is similar to asking if the IRS is going to find out that you are earning money, or if you are going to get caught if you lie on any sort of application form. Maybe not. Maybe so. But the consequences of getting caught can be severe. And unless you are earning a huge amount of money, due to the allowance for students, it may not make any or much difference in your aid award.