<p>I have a full time job while my wife works part-time during the holiday season. Our combined annual income is far below $80K. A friend told us that having a second income in the family may lose the opportunity for certain grant/scholarship that may even be higher than my wife’s income. I wonder where can I find some information regarding this.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>There is no guideline or rule about “second incomes”. Having or not having a second income is irrelevant.</p>
<p>What matters is the total amount of income…even if the total amount is from ONE earner.</p>
<p>In some states, like California, having a family income below $80k qualifies a student for Blue and Gold Promise at the UCs. However, it doesn’t matter if the income is from ONE earner or TWO earners. What matters is the TOTAL.</p>
<p>I don’t know what YOUR income is, but it may already be too high to qualify for federal grants. </p>
<p>MOST schools do not give much in grants no matter how little you earn.</p>
<p>You need to run some net price calculators on schools that interest your child…try a couple of different income scenarios.</p>
<p>I agree with Mom2collegekids. It’s the total that counts. Now what your friend may have meant was that because you have a spouse also working, the fact that additional income is coming in, could impact whether you meet a certain threshhold or not. For example, if you make $50K and so does Joe Jones, but if he does not have a working spouse, his kids would qualify for under $80K a year family income awards whereas if you have a working spouse that made $31K, you are out. I don’t know if the programs are cliffs in terms of qualifiying or if you phase out. Most fin aid programs phase out which means you only get a little bit of money if you just barely qualify and you lose only a bit if you don’t. So it’s not like making the $80K or whatever bar is a big deal thing unless it is a cliff type program.</p>
<p>The post above is actually incorrect. If you have the same income from two parents instead of one you will receive a lower EFC from the FAFSA. See the below section of the FSA handbook.
Employment expense allowance. Families with two working parents and one-parent families have extra expenses that must be considered, such as housekeeping services, transportation, clothing and upkeep, and meals away from home. This allowance recognizes those extra expenses. For two working parents, the allowance is 35% of the lesser of the father’s income earned from work (question 86) or the mother’s income earned from work (question 87), but may not exceed $3,600. For one-parent families, the allowance is 35% of the parent’s income earned from work, also not to exceed $3,600. If a student’s parents are married and only one parent reports an income earned from work, the allowance is zero. The employment expense allowance is never less than zero.</p>
<p>Hey, My family makes around 75-80k a year with only one parent earning while the other is a stay home parents. I don’t work at all so thats our only income. We have bought a house recently and we still owe around 270,000 on that. Does this go into account of financial aid?</p>
<p>Also my list of colleges are:
University of Miami - 17,000
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill - 8,000
University of Pennsylvania - 45,000
University of California-Berkeley - 15,000
University of Virginia - 28,000
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor -
Emory University
Johns Hopkins University
Duke University
Rice University
Vanderbilt University
Yale University
Cornell University
Brown University </p>
<p>the numbers besides some of them are of close family friends who got that much. My parents will not be able to help pay much on my college education, except for maybe a few thousand a year. How much aid do you think I would be able to get. I don’t wanna pay more than 20-25k a year</p>
<p>Debt is not accounted for in FA calculations since that is a choice. What some other students received from colleges doesn’t mean a thing for you due to income, merit aid, home state, etc. Go out to their Net Price Calculators (on each college’s site) and see what the forecast is for YOU. Google Net Price Calculator and School Name.</p>