Question for all the FAFSA guru's out there

[baracuda]

I think my parents did well last year and I was wondering if their Financial information would hurt me when it comes to fafsa? My cost of education is going to be in the 50-60/year range!! and I know that the government staffords can cover 38500. could this aid be affected by my parents info or is it just depended on mine. And how else am I supposed to cover the rest of the cost? is Private loan my only option? How high does the parental income have to be to not qualify for the need based grants/scholarships? If the income is high, should I just not include their info, and if i do, could it hurt me? And also do they only look at the income info or do they also consider the amount of mortgage/business debt?

I'm getting confused. Any info would be appreciated.

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[squeek]

For the FAFSA purposes, only YOU are considered (if you are applying for medical or graduate school). Unless you've been raking in the bucks at a great job, you're pretty much guaranteed the $38,500 ($8500 subsidized, the remainder unsubsidized). Even if you put your parent information on the sheet (which is a smart, time-saving move if you want to apply for school-based financial aid, since your school will request copies of your FAFSA), the government will not take their income into account.

As for need-based grants, that varies widely between schools. Most medical schools in the US will consider you a dependent of your parents, meaning their income is taken into account. At my school, you only get need-based aid if the parents make less than $85,000 per year. If you are a first-year student, my advice is to apply for the need-based aid. When the results come back, have a talk with the financial aid advisor. If your parents are way over the cutoff, it may be a waste of your time to apply 2nd year (it was for me), but you don't know until you apply once.

One question: why will you be needing $50-60,000 per year? Are you an out-of-state student going to University of Colorado? Because that's one of the few schools that cost so much. If you are careful with your finances, it shouldn't cost that much...My husband and I are living in NYC (expensive!) and I am going to a private school, but our total expenses for two of us (groceries, rent, laundry, etc) plus books, health insurance and my school tuition is around $55,000. It really shouldn't cost you that much for just one person!

Good luck!