<p>robert…do your parents provide more than half of your sister’s support? If not…she probably is not a “member of your household”. Also, how old is she?</p>
<p>Actually, if the sister would be dependent for financial aid purposes (that is, if she is under 24 - assuming not married & no kids), she WOULD be a member of the household regardless of how much she earns.</p>
<p>I curse my parents for having my sister 4 years later before me… (she’s graduating college now as I’m graduating high school and not going to grad school)</p>
<p>@thumper </p>
<p>She is 23 years old, not married, works full time and goes to school full time. She doesn’t file her taxes under my mom for tax purposes. Regardless our efc is still 0 so I don’t think it matters much.</p>
<p>Buy one get one free does not happen with college cost.</p>
<p>I think the best case is buy one and get 80% discount on the second one.</p>
<p>Will this still apply if your parents aren’t paying for your or your siblings tuition? I have an older brother and two younger, and my parents are expecting us all to get loans, although they will probably pay living costs</p>
<p>Wish the students could count parents in school on this question on the FAFSA and Profile. I am returning to school as well! (It does come up somewhere, but not in this question, as I remember.)</p>
<p>Grad school doesn’t count, does it? Even if the student is under 24?</p>
<p>Most schools will not allow grad students in the number in school (since a grad student is independent for financial aid purposes & is his own number in school). However, some schools will allow the grad student to be counted in the number in household, if the parents are paying at least half the student’s support for the year.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the FAFSA have federal rules that are not school-specific? When you say “some schools will allow…” do you mean that the family provides that information on some other form and the school considers it?</p>
<p>My daughter is filling out forms now for a law school that takes into account parent financial information to calculate aid. Doesn’t seem very equitable that we can’t count her as a student on her brother’s undergraduate aid application. Also, I remember being surprised several years ago when we were filing out aid forms for her undergraduate years, and I couldn’t count myself, even though I was in grad school full time. It is what is, I guess.</p>
<p>2011orbust, is there a specific clause that excludes non-parent grad students who are household members and enrolled at least half time from being counted as the number in college? This does not apply to us, but it will next year and I can’t find anything:</p>
<p>From the FAFSA instructions:</p>
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<p>From the studentaid.ed FAQ’s:</p>
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<p>Because an independent student receives aid as if she is in her own household - her aid is independent of her parent’s income - she is her own number in college. One is household, one in college. To allow her to then be counted in the sibling or parent’s number in college/household is not a given. Some schools will allow, others will not. Many schools will allow the independent student to be included in household size, as long as the parents are actually supporting the student at least 50%. However, not so many schools will allow the independent student to be counted in the number in college - as I said, that student is receiving her own aid as her own “number in college.” There is no parental obligation - from the regulatory point of view - for the parent to contribute to her education.</p>
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<p>Not sure what kind of aid most grad students are getting these days…I was thinking it would only be loans 
I can see how this would be different for independent undergrads, but it makes no sense to me that they do it that way for grad students as it wouldn’t affect the grad’s “aid” anyway and simply penalizes the dependent undergrad sibling if the parent is trying to help both kids. </p>
<p>It’s odd that schools have discretion to allow/disallow this when it seems to be written very clearly.</p>
<p>Re: grad students…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>First you have to determine if the grad student is a MEMBER of your household. If you are providing more than half of their support, the answer can be YES.</p></li>
<li><p>Then you can include members of your household who are attending college. You will notice on the FAFSA guidelines that these college students must be attending school more than 1/2 time AND must be pursuing a post secondary school degree or certificate. NO WHERE does it say this must be at the undergrad level…so again…you can count the grad school student IF he/she is a member of your household.</p></li>
<li><p>BUT and it’s a big BUT…the schools can decide whether or not to include your grad school student i the count. When DD was a freshman, her brother was a senior in college. We asked EACH school what they would do when big bro was in grad school. It was 50/50. Some said they would count him and others said NOPE. And it didn’t matter whether they were FAFSA only OR also included the Profile.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The rules are clearly not clear. There is more than one way to interpret things. That is the way it is with many finaid rules. The key for schools is that they must apply the rules consistently. If they do that, they are within the regs.</p>
<p>thanks all for the info. seems the best way to deal with this is to call the schools and ask</p>
<p>Well…I just went through a TON of old FAFSAS and Profiles getting them ready for the shredder…so I took the time to actually READ them.</p>
<p>On the FAFSA, when you look at the members of your household, you can then enter any member of your household who is in a degree or certificate program more than 1/2 time. There is NO place to indicate undergrad/grad school.</p>
<p>BUT in our cases, all schools asked for forms from the other sibling’s college verifying their enrollment status and year in school (I shredded those too).</p>
<p>Ah…but on the Profile, when you put that another sib is in college, you then also get to indicate what YEAR they will be for the Profile year you are completing. So…when my daughter was a college freshman, we put 4th year/undergrad for her brother. BUT The following year, we had to put graduate school (or something like that).</p>
<p>STILL it was EACH school that made the call on whether big brother counted when he was a grad student.</p>
<p>The school DD matriculated to, and graduated from, DID count big brother when he was a grad student. This was a Profile school too…so no secrets.</p>
<p>Her third choice school, FAFSA only, was very clear. They did NOT count grad school siblings in the count.</p>
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<p>Well, that’s interesting and may make it a moot point for us anyway. Youngest son’s school did send verification forms to us but it only required the sib’s signature and did NOT ask what year they were in or whether they were grad/undergrad. If that doesn’t change we’ll be golden and, if not, we’ll deal with it. I’m not going to try asking because it always takes forever to find someone there who understands the question, much less can give an answer!</p>
<p>Sk8rmom…when I said “enrollment status” I didn’t mean undergrad vs. grad…I meant full time vs…not. The schools wanted to know if the sib was enrolled more than 1/2 time in a college. Neither school asked whether the student was in grad school…but as I said…the Profile School DD attended knew because that info was ON the Profile submitted when big bro was a grad student.</p>