<p>Does it look at more than income?</p>
<p>The FAFSA does NOT consider your debt, if that is what you are asking. It does not consider your mortgage payment on your primary home, rent, utilities, car payments, loans you have, consumer debt of any kind. </p>
<p>What exactly are you asking about?</p>
<p>the formula already considers a basic living standard (housing, utilities) in its calculation which is why the first $25k or so isn’t used in a family’s calculation. </p>
<p>If you’ve chosen to live in a home with a high mortgage or have credit card bills, those are considered to be choices and therefore aren’t considered. </p>
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<p>Yes, it also looks at savings, grades, child support payments, whether someone was homeless and a few other questions.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it have been easier just to look at the form yourself?</p>
<p><a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1314/pdf/PdfFafsa13-14.pdf”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1314/pdf/PdfFafsa13-14.pdf</a></p>
<p>The FAFSA looks at grades? Where?</p>
<p>^ I interpreted that to mean grades attended by siblings.</p>
<p>The forms themselves pretty much show what they consider in terms of bills and expenses. They do deduct the taxes owed for the year, state and federal income taxes. If there are medical expenses that are extreme or payments that had to be reported that went directly to medical issues, that is something colleges will consider under professional judgment and has to be requested from each school. Some expenses that are business related might be considered and as Erin’s dad says, there are times when private school or special program expenses are taken into account by PROFILE school when younger siblings are so enrollled. A number of Catholic schools do that, I’ve seen. IF there are brothes and sisters going to K-12 parochial school, that expense is taken into account. I know a famlily who does have a high needs child at home who is in number of programs to meet his issues, and the college does take that into consideration on fin aid, how much I don’t know, but the mom said they would not have qualified for aid without that consideration. </p>
<p>we have a lot of medical expenses. my dad works in a union and they force him to buy expensive insurance & take out a lot for pensions. unfortunately, although we have an average home, it has a high interest rate because the market was bad when we bought it. we have a lot of car payments, too. also, my family owns property that ups their net worth but it needs to be fixed so we can’t sell it yet. our gross income looks high, but 75% of it goes to bills. we don’t get a lot of luxurious things or anything, but just our heat is $600 a month, for example. And, we only have it on 65 degrees. all of our utilities are like that. credit cards are high but all we use it for is food, cable, gas, and things like that. </p>
<p>The colleges will not consider your car payments, dad’s required pension and insurance contributions, high mortgage interest rate and payment, heating bill, or credit card bills. The value if the property you own in addition to your primary residence will be viewed as an asset…whether you can sell it or not. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, your father will benefit from those pension contributions, and your family from the insurance. Do you really think colleges,should give you a discount because of this?</p>
<p>If you have LARGE unreimbursed medical expenses, it is possible that a school MIGHT consider these in a special circumstances consideration. Each school has their own procedure for doing these. And some schools do NOT. Also, they are done on a case by case basis. You would need to document the necessity for these medical costs (elective things would not count), as well as your insurance submissions and denial of coverage…and why. </p>
<p>If your dad is paying huge premiums for health insurance, what exactly is not covered? Is it your deductible?</p>
<p>Anyway…most of what you listed in this post will not be considered when calculating your need. And the medical bills are a maybe.</p>
<p>ETA…“large” medical expenses…in what amount? And the only expenses considered for this year’s awards would be those incurred in 2013.</p>
<p>Sorry, but most all of us have high bills and expenses of some sort. Only those things listed as items for consideration are considered. For example, the large reimbursed medical PAYMENTS or maybe expenses. You call each school and ask for consideration. They each have their own way they make these determinations. For instance if you have assets earmarked (ins reimbursements ,etc) for those bills, that can be shown that they were for that purpose, your assets may be reduced for one time for that. Not a guarantee, by the way. Maybe. As for bad investments and property you can’t unload, that;s just too bad. The market value of that property has to be low if it’s that bad, and if there are loans against it, then the value is reduced by those loans with the property down as collateral for it. But the property is worth what the family can get for it. Has to be worth something for your family to hang on to it. It will sell, for something, though not what your family wants to take for it, I’m sure. Otherwise,it’s worth zero,and you can get an appraiser to say, if that is the case. </p>
<p>Insurance and pension expenses, too bad. Part of the job. The contributions for pensions do have to be added back into pay most likely. We’re all in the same boat there. Them’s the rules for all of us.</p>
<p>The bills that you list are common to many/most families.</p>
<p>“we have a lot of medical expenses. my dad works in a union and they force him to buy expensive insurance & take out a lot for pensions.”</p>
<p>Buying health insurance isn’t “lot of medical expenses”. Lots of medical expenses are the expenses that aren’t covered by insurance. Families all across the US are paying a fortune for their family health insurance. </p>
<p>Sounds like you have an unaffordable EFC. Your family needs to tell you how much they CAN pay for college and you’ll have to work with THAT. </p>
<p>Did you apply to any affordable schools? Any schools that will give you large merit? </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>i got into 13 schools so far. However, only one is affordable but they don’t have any of the majors i’m interested in so i don’t want to go for obvious reasons. i got some merit scholarships but it’s still expensive. my dream school gave me nothing. i still want to go because i worked too hard for community college. i would still consider cc before my crappy state school but i don’t want to live with my parents unless they re-hire our maid and gardeners. i refuse to attend cc after getting a 4+ gpa and still have to do things i dislike. </p>
<p>Well, my dear, your choices will be on the table. If you can’t pay, your parents won’t pay and the schools don’t pay, you might have to go to work and see if you can earn enough to go to college by the time you are 24 and independent of your parents. The average college student is in his/her mid 20s, working full or part time, going to a local school part time and not living on campus, but with family. You can only choose from the options available, and doing nothing is such an option by default.</p>
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<p>Wow, life really sucks for you now.</p>
<p>"we don’t get a lot of luxurious things or anything, "</p>
<p>I have news for you…maids and gardeners are luxurious expenses. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>What are some of the majors that interest you? What is your career goal/</p>
<p>What school is your safety school?</p>
<p>What were your test scores (SAT breakdown) or ACT composite?</p>
<p>it doesn’t sound like you did apply to any safeties since you don’t like the one you have.</p>
<p>"However, only one is affordable but they don’t have any of the majors i’m interested in so i don’t want to go for obvious reasons. i got some merit scholarships but it’s still expensive. my dream school gave me nothing. i still want to go because i worked too hard for community college. i would still consider cc before my crappy state school '</p>
<p>? What is the ‘crappy state school’?</p>
<p>? which schools gave you merit scholarships and how much were the awards?</p>
<p>i don’t want to live with my parents unless they re-hire our maid and gardeners. i refuse to attend cc after getting a 4+ gpa and still have to do things i dislike.</p>
<p>Wow that is so sad. I hope they didn’t have to let your driver to? </p>
<p>So you can hire maids and gardeners but you put your food, cable, etc on a credit card bill? </p>
<p>Uh huh… </p>
<p>we didn’t have them for that long. i don’t like cleaning. i want to be a screenwriter but only the expensive film school has that. i would major in theatre because i like acting but not english which is the only thing my state school has.</p>
<p>Screenwriting, theater, drama can all be done at most all schools. Majoring in English or other discipline will just fine with activiites in your interests, and you can look for grad programs with stipends for theater or film. Get the basics out of your way. You don’t want loans going into that fields. Make the most of what opportunities you have. </p>
<p>yeah, i’ve decided to apply to a state school that is even cheaper and has a theater program and a better alumni network, too.</p>