I spent the weekend dropping my daughter off at college and I’m still glowing from UChicago’s amazing orientation weekend for incoming students and families. Now I have to pay her tuition bill which is helping me to make the mental transition back to real life.
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FAFSA
Having gone through the FAFSA formula, let’s take a look at how it works with a few scenarios that illustrate how small changes can have big impacts on EFC, or alternatively, how big changes can have small impacts. Our hypothetical family is a family of four with two children, one a high school senior and the other a high school…
Parent assets seem to be the area that most families and planners focus on, despite the fact that they typically have the smallest impact on the formula of each of the components. Strategies and tactics to minimize parent assets abound, but for most families these result more in nibbling around the edges than actually making a significant dent in EFC.
Parent income tends to be overlooked in FAFSA planning, which is unfortunate because for most families it’s the biggest piece– and one that has some real planning opportunities.
Last week, the Department of Education released the FAFSA Formula Guide for the coming FAFSA. Before I give you that link, I want to share some basics about the FAFSA. I’ll also break out each section of it in depth in the coming weeks– hopefully before the new FAFSA arrives on Oct. 1.