Lying about my account balance on the Fafsa?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AltarSoldier
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

AltarSoldier

Guest
I am currently applying for financial aid and I’m almost done but its asking me my total current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts. I have a few grand stowed away but Im wondering and a bit conflicted onto the capacity of lying about what I have in my account in order to get financial aid for school. Im worried if I tell them what I have in my account it would be considered that I dont really need aid because of what I have saved.
 
that is true. The whole application and college in general in daunting. Plus I dont want to lie if it means It’ll come back to nip me in the behind
 
Embrace truth at the expense of your own personal suffering.
 
AltarSoldier said:
I have a few grand stowed away but Im wondering and a bit conflicted onto the capacity of lying about what I have in my account in order to get financial aid for school.
Click to expand...
Do not lie. That is wrong. And you could void your eligibility for aid if you lie.
AltarSoldier said:
Im worried if I tell them what I have in my account it would be considered that I dont really need aid because of what I have saved.
Click to expand...
That isn’t how the FAFSA works.

Expected Family Contribution is calculated on a portion of both the parents’ and student’s income and assets. The portion used in the student asset calculation is .20, so 20% of what you have saved. The formula doesn’t expect you to use all your savings.

See:

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/resources#efc

https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/2021EFCFormulaGuideOct2019UpdateAttach.pdf
 
Things like food stamp applications might take that into account. Many kids have college savings accounts. No one is going to let a few grand stand between you and college tuition!
 
Don’t lie. I understand the temptation because I pondered this the first time I filled out FAFSA, but I decided to be truthful about it, and that’s something to feel good about.

The second half of @1ke’s post, about the FAFSA EFC formula, is reassuring, and there is even one more reason not to worry about disclosing all your savings: Many schools don’t hold to the EFC anyway. I assume that each school distributes their available financial aid funds fairly with EFC in mind, but they only have so much to give in total, which means you’ll probably pay more than the EFC anyway. At least this was true in the case of my eldest child (the only one in college so far). So it’s not clear that lying would significantly reduce your college payments.
 
speaking as a lawyer . . . you’re raising issues of fraud and embezzlement or larceny!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top