Reporting parent information on the FAFSA might make you want to pull your hair out.
If you are completing the FAFSA, some terms can confuse you. Today’s post addresses those questions in an effort to help you understand them more clearly and fill the ambiguous categories like divorced, separated, living together but not remarried, divorced and living together, separated and living together, and stepparent married to biological parent.
Here are some detailed articles that will help you discern which FAFSA parenting category you fit into.
From TeenLifeMedia, “How Divorce and Separation Can Affect Financial Aid”
When students apply to college, there are many forms to complete. And if they are applying for financial aid, the FAFSA is No. 1 on the list. This form asks the obvious questions: name, date of birth, Social Security number, address etc. It also asks questions about parents’ financial information to determine financial aid eligibility.
If you are separated or divorced, this part of the FAFSA raises many questions:
- How will colleges treat the income of two separate families?
- Which parent’s income is used for determining the expected family contribution, or EFC?
- Do both parents have to report their incomes?
- What do the words “custodial parent” mean?
Read the entire article for clarification.
Maybe you know you’re considered a dependent student* by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSASM), and you’re supposed to put information about your parents on the application. But what if your parents are divorced? Remarried? What if you live with your sister? Whose information should you report?
Below are some guidelines that might help. Unless otherwise noted, “parent” means your legal (biological and/or adoptive) parent or your stepparent. In addition, the rules below apply to your legal parents regardless of their gender.
Download the PDF for instructions on how to complete this section
EdAdvisors Network addresses the issue of divorce and separation, “FAFSA Tutorial: Divorced and Separated Parents on the FAFSA”:
The marital status and living arrangements of a student’s biological and adoptive parents determines whether the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) requires financial and demographic information from one or both parents.
These topics are addressed:
- Who is Considered a Parent?
- Parents who are Married to Each Other
- Parents who are Unmarried
- Who is the Custodial Parent?
- Stepparents
- Increasing Aid Eligibility
Read the tutorial for detailed explanations of each category
SmartAsset.com provides parents with an easy-to-understand guide and some examples, “Divorce, FAFSA, and the Financial Aid Process”:
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA is the Hydra that strikes terror in the hearts of even the most financially savvy parents. Rendering otherwise competent adults mumbling, muttering wrecks. Creative hyperbole aside for the moment, most people are intimidated by FAFSA to some degree but those preparing the form as divorcees face a special kind of torment.
There are several problems with FAFSA when divorce is involved, none of which are insurmountable but lack of understanding can tear open long healed wounds and foster a renewed sense of acrimony. However, knowing the rules of the game can make life and FAFSA easier.
To understand the rules and see some practical examples, read this article