FAFSA tips with a lot of dependents

cptofthehouse
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 16:53:45 +0000

OP, I apologized for coming off harsh. I have a lot of kids too, though you beat me in this regard. And we were pretty much a one income family most of the time they were growing up.

My kids could not get financial aid because we made too much money. The system puts it on the parents to pay for college, and in our case, we were running short in meeting our EFC because we did not save enough money, we were living close enough to income that we could not pay college costs out of income current to that time. As I stated, kids can’t take out more than the direct loans, $5500 freshman year to $7500 senior year which wasn’t going to pay for a year of going away to school even back 20 years ago.

So we borrowed with the oldest who got into a Highly selective private college. Reorganized finances, and priorities, And the second one picked a state school, got scholarship money. Others all variations in that theme. Scholarships, financial aid Community college, state schools Americorp , loans, savings, work , Resident advisor, lucrative internship , family help, all cane into the picture… and didn’t at various times during our 20 year journey that just ended this year.

Hopefully, you stick around and browse through the forums that have incredible resources, ideas, information, tips, etc etc A lot of highly informed members here.

Do verify any info you get from here or anywhere from a current, primary source, as sometimes things change or someone gets it wrong.

Good luck and hope to read you around