Student Advisor Blog

TOP TIPS FOR GETTING THE MOST STUDENT AID POSSIBLE: 
1. Don’t delay. If you file your income taxes around the April 15th deadline, don’t wait until your taxes are completed to file your FAFSA or you will miss most of the state and college student aid deadlines. Most programs award aid on a first-come, first-serve basis. Providing accurate estimates on the FAFSA as early as January 1, 2011 holds your place in the virtual aid line.  
2. Be careful when calculating or estimating your adjusted gross income. Answering this question incorrectly won’t cause your FAFSA to be rejected by the Dept of ED, but a wrong answer could lower your aid award. Remember, your taxable income is not your adjusted gross income. 
3. Don’t include untaxed Social Security as income. Reporting it will inflate your expected family contribution and lower the amount of aid for which you are eligible.  
4. Children of divorced parents typically believe that the parent they live with is their legal guardian and that they are in a legal guardianship. This is not true in all cases. Whichever parent the student lived with the most in the previous 12 months is the legal guardian for FAFSA purposes. If neither (or lived with both parents equally), then whichever parent supported the child most financially in the previous 12 months. A wrong answer will incorrectly change the student’s dependency status to “independent” and impact the aid calculation. 
5. More families are withdrawing funds from retirement accounts early – sometimes it’s taxed and sometimes it’s not. Counting these funds in both adjusted gross income and untaxed income will inflate your expected family contribution and decrease aid.  
6. If you or a family member has had their job eliminated, you may be eligible to answer “yes” to the “dislocated worker” question. You need to meet one of four criteria on the day that you submit your FAFSA. Being a “dislocated worker” affects how your assets are treated and could even reduce your expected family contribution to zero.  
7. Consider getting student aid advice and FAFSA preparation help from paid professionals. Federal law allows paid professional FAFSA preparation, much like tax advisors help families prepare their taxes accurately and correctly to maximize their tax refunds. Choose a professional FAFSA preparer, such as <a>http://www.fafsa.com who has a good Better Business Bureau rating, uses people to review each answer to ensure accuracy, tells you about your do-it-yourself option with the Dept of Education, receives high ratings from past clients, and has the goal of making you eligible for the most aid possible. With the average student aid award of $10,000 at stake, help from a professional FAFSA preparer can relieve some of the stress of finding money for college.  
8. Don’t include your primary residence, car, boat, or furniture as assets or you will be inflating your expected family contribution and lowering your potential for aid. 
9. Not all businesses are treated the same when calculating assets. Different rules apply to family-owned businesses employing fewer than 100 people. Getting this wrong won’t reject your FAFSA, but it could lower the amount of aid for which you are eligible. 
10. List your last name exactly as it appears on your Social Security card or your FAFSA will be rejected. 
11. Double-check all numbers and sign. That sounds simple, but transposing numbers and not signing the form are two common mistakes that will lose you your virtual place in the aid line.