filing-the-fafsa-2015-2016-edition

Filing the FAFSA 128
Divorce and Separation
When a student’s parents are divorced or separated, only one parent is responsible for completing the
FAFSA. The student may qualify for more need-based financial aid if this parent is the one with the lower
income. (Note that the income of a stepparent must be included if the custodial parent has remarried.) To
some extent, the parents can control which parent is responsible for completing the FAFSA by controlling
where the student lives. This parent, called the custodial parent, is the parent with whom the student
lived the most during the 12 months ending on the FAFSA submission date.
Dependency Status
Independent students may sometimes qualify for more aid than dependent students, since parent
income and asset information are not reported on the FAFSA of an independent student. But, sometimes
qualifying as an independent student will increase the EFC instead of decreasing it. The federal needanalysis
methodology has three formulas, one for dependent students, one for independent students
without dependents other than a spouse and one for independent students with dependents other than
a spouse. Students who become independent through marriage may not necessarily qualify for more
financial aid, especially if they substitute spouse income and assets for parent income and assets. Also,
cash support from an independent student’s parents must be reported as untaxed income to the student.
(Cash support includes money, gifts and loans, plus expenses paid by others on the student’s behalf,
such as food, clothing, housing, car payments or expenses, medical and dental care and college costs.) In
any event, it is difficult for an otherwise dependent student to become independent. The main methods
under the student’s discretionary control are marriage, having a child or dependent other than a spouse,
enlisting in the military, enrolling in graduate or professional school or waiting until age 24 to enroll in
college. Dependency overrides, which are made at the discretion of the college financial aid administrator,
are reserved for unusual circumstances that are unlikely to be under the student’s discretionary control.
Based on data from the 2011-2012 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), only 13.3% of
undergraduate students under age 24 were independent in 2011-2012. (About seven eights (85.4%) of
independent undergraduate students were independent because they were over age 24.) Of these, 54.5%
were independent because they had dependents other than a spouse, 23.7% because they were married
(15.0% because they were married and had no dependents other than a spouse), 5.2% because they were
veterans and 2.5% because they were serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. Less than one
percent were independent because of a dependency override.
Other Strategies
Federal Pell Grant Eligibility Limits
Students may receive Federal Pell Grants for the equivalent of 12 semesters (6 years of full-time
enrollment). This restriction is based on the number of academic terms in which a Federal Pell Grant
was received, not the amount of the Federal Pell Grant. If the student will be receiving a small Federal
Pell Grant but expects to qualify for much larger grants in the future, it may be to the student’s benefit to
forgo receiving the Federal Pell Grant now to preserve future eligibility for the grant.