As of today, what is the student's (and his/her spouse's) total current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts (question 43)? (Do not include student financial aid.):
Answers:
Do you have any credit cards that you could pay down? Bills that you could pay in advance? That would be a legal way to report a lesser amount of money in your bank account and on hand.
I will say one thing, though: good luck getting through school without having to work! If you are paying your own way in the world and aren't receiving any financial assistance aside from the grants you might be eligible for with the FAFSA, it's going to be nearly impossible. I don't know where you live, but here in California many of us have to work AND take out loans just to cover the basic cost of living. A common misconception is that if you have an EFC of 0 then the school will provide you with a financial aid package that covers whatever is listed as the "cost of attendance" for their institution. That most definitely is not the case. Your EFC is used to calculate what you are eligible for with regard to grants and loans, but financial aid is still only meant to help out with expenses (tuition, books, rent, food, etc). What is unfortunate about this scenario is that students often end up having to work so many hours to make ends meet that they cannot attend school full-time. This reduces financial aid, which in turn, requires them to work more hours/get a second job, and so on.
I hope I didn't discourage you - these are just some of the things I really wish someone had told me when I began this whole process. Good luck!!
Just indicate on the application how much total money you have, whether it be in a checking account or savings. No need to pull out any or move it around. Be honest when dealing with the government. If they check, it is possible to see money that has been pulled.
this question won't affect much UNTIL/UNLESS you have been selected for verification and the government thinks it's necessary to do an investigation on you. they will pull out all your info without asking you (bec they hv the right to). til then, they will check your bank account and see whether whatever you have reported matches what is in your bank account.
p/s: a couple thousands is a lot to a student. so it's really not an advantage to show the govt thats how much you hv in the bank.
Just be honest about it, if you start transfering funds the government can find out and get you for fraud. And even if you cant get aid theyre are still alternative ways to get money for college. Chase financial does a student loan that doesnt require any payments until 180 days after you graduate. You dont need to record every dime you have but a rough estimate of what you have is fine. Good luck with the form, i was denied financial aid my first two years of college... then i stopped applying for it... found it easier to get it on my own.
Your best bet is to be honest...or you could be looking at having to pay back money that you may not otherwise be entitled to.
Also, if you lie on the financial aid application, you can face penalties and possibly run the risk of not being allowed to file for it again for a certain period of time.
Please be honest!
You need to read the question again, if you pull money out of savings or checking you will still have it in cash - so it would STILL need to be reported.
My experience - if you have "a couple of thousand dollars" lying around, your income from last year will be is too high to qualify for grants and the extra few grand probably won't matter (my humble opinion - and I most certainly could be wrong). My advise: save the cash, you are going to need it so you won't have to take out so much in loans.
This article contents is post by this website user, EduQnA.com doesn't promise its accuracy.
More Questions & Answers...