Your Student Aid Index– the amount that the FAFSA says your family can pay for college– gets a lot of air time. But there’s another number that’s more important: Net Cost. Your Net Cost is your actual cost to attend a college. Net cost matters because colleges are under no obligation to meet your financial need. That means that just…
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Any time things change, some people benefit and others are worse off. This is also true of FAFSA Simplification. While many of the formula changes benefit large swaths of the population– such as removing 401k contributions from income or changing child support from income to an asset– other are less advantageous. Two big ones are eliminating the sibling discount and…
Part 2: The Whole Family Family members beside the student can have an impact on EFC or SAI, and how they impact the student will change with FAFSA Simplification. Here are two key areas where your family’s impact on your FAFSA will change. Multiple Students Up until this year, the FAFSA has divided the student’s Expected Family Contribution by the…
Part 1: Timing and Income Last week the Department of Education announced that this year’s FAFSA will come out in December, not October. We now have some additional information about FAFSA Simplification and what’s in store, so let’s dig in! December? Yes, this year the FAFSA will be released in December, not October. That’s to accommodate the myriad changes that…
My son’s friend just graduated from Arizona State, without paying a penny. How? She works at Starbucks and through a combination of starting at community college and continuing with Starbucks College Achievement Plan, she was able to earn her bachelor’s degree for $0. She’s now working on her student teaching and expects to be a full-time teacher soon, all without…