Family Income?

tokenadult
Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:54:09 +0000

Hi, everyone,

DW and I just finished doing our taxes, and that reminds me that I need a refresher course in college financial aid. When a college says, “We have ___ percent of our student body with family incomes in the range of ____,” are they referring to the family’s self-reported "adjusted gross income, as on Form 1040 for taxes, or is it some other number from a family’s FAFSA form? (Or does FAFSA just ask for the 1040 adjusted gross income? I haven’t ever done a FAFSA form yet, so I don’t know.)

The “adjusted gross income” figure is the baseline for must financial aid calculations, and thus also for college tracking of socioeconomic background of enrolled students, right?