Grad student sibling's impact on undergrad's EFC

thumper1
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:43:33 +0000

My son is a grad student, 22, lives at home, goes to school full time, and he is considered “independent” on his fafsa, so I can’t count him on ours.



Well…maybe I’m misinformed. DS was a grad student. We were providing well more than 1/2 of his support. He was independent for financial aid purposes for HIS FAFSA (he couldn’t list his SISTER undergrad on his) but HE was still a member of our household AND he was enrolled in college pursuing a degree (I believe graduate degree was listed on there at the time). So…he was a member of our household and on little SISTER’s FAFSA, he was listed as one of the two students in college.

BUT some of the colleges were VERY clear…they did NOT count grad school siblings in the count. The school DD attended DID count grad school siblings in the number of students in college IF the grad school student was still considered a “member of the household”…which our son was.

YMMV depending on the SCHOOL where the undergrad sib is enrolled.

There is no question…the independent GRAD school student CANNOT under any circumstances list their sibling undergrad on their FAFSA.