I have no idea how to pay for law school.

[latenitesession]

tag

[zerofact0r]

I'm looking for some definite consensus on this one:

on the FAFSA, include parental info or no? I think no, but I just want to hear from people who have already submitted it.

I submitted my FAFSA with my parent's estimates, it's in being processed. The EFC was around 10000. The thing is my parents don't help out with my financials - is it possible to take out my parent's info? Is that a good thing to do? I'm confused. Any help would be appreciated.

What Zamora said.

Though, if you got to the prompt that said "You are not required to include parental information", and you included it ANYWAY, then you can file a corrected FAFSA (details on the FAFSA site).

Just because you include the parental information anyway doesn't mean that you filed incorrectly - you are not *required* to include it, but it doesn't say NOT to include it.  I'm going to include it just in case ... b/c there is no way any reasonable person is going to think I'm financially independent when I made 0 dollars last year and didn't even file for taxes.  But they MAY think that my mother is rich in this case ... but I'm going to fill out her info so that they see she/we are low income.

Worst case scenerio - they disregard her information.  Oh wells.

Why on earth would you include additional asset information that they're not asking for?  If they dont need to know, then they dont need to know.  Don't volunteer this stuff.

[Jhuen_the_bird]

I'm looking for some definite consensus on this one:

on the FAFSA, include parental info or no? I think no, but I just want to hear from people who have already submitted it.

I submitted my FAFSA with my parent's estimates, it's in being processed. The EFC was around 10000. The thing is my parents don't help out with my financials - is it possible to take out my parent's info? Is that a good thing to do? I'm confused. Any help would be appreciated.

What Zamora said.

Though, if you got to the prompt that said "You are not required to include parental information", and you included it ANYWAY, then you can file a corrected FAFSA (details on the FAFSA site).

Just because you include the parental information anyway doesn't mean that you filed incorrectly - you are not *required* to include it, but it doesn't say NOT to include it.  I'm going to include it just in case ... b/c there is no way any reasonable person is going to think I'm financially independent when I made 0 dollars last year and didn't even file for taxes.  But they MAY think that my mother is rich in this case ... but I'm going to fill out her info so that they see she/we are low income.

Worst case scenerio - they disregard her information.  Oh wells.

Why on earth would you include additional asset information that they're not asking for?  If they dont need to know, then they dont need to know.  Don't volunteer this stuff.

But it isn't really an additional "asset" ... just showing that I don't have a rich parent in the wings, but rather one with low income.

[queencruella]

Schools who really care about parental info will require it through NeedAccess or some other form. If you're given the option to leave it out, why not do it? It may allow you to qualify for Perkins loans that you wouldn't be able to get with your parents' info.

[zerofact0r]

Any income your parents have is still another asset for them to look at.  If they don't require it, then for all they know you dont even have parents. 

[zephyr]

Does anyone know of a good financial planning site for students? I'd like to try plugging in potential debt figures to get an idea of monthly payments, duration of loan, etc.

[pikey]

Here's one -

Can you always borrow the maximum in federal loans, regardless of what your LS budget is and whether you've got most of it covered?

I think you're only allowed to borrow the amount in your budget, but I'm certainly no expert.

[Thistle]

Here's one -

Can you always borrow the maximum in federal loans, regardless of what your LS budget is and whether you've got most of it covered?

I think you're only allowed to borrow the amount in your budget, but I'm certainly no expert.

you may borrow up to your "total cost of attendance" which is provided by financial aid.

[BrerAnansi]

Here's one -

Can you always borrow the maximum in federal loans, regardless of what your LS budget is and whether you've got most of it covered?

I think you're only allowed to borrow the amount in your budget, but I'm certainly no expert.

TITCR. You can appeal to your FA officer to increase your budget but you can't get more funding than is alloted by your school from the govt.  With regard to other sources...it may be possible, but most of the time scholarship money is forwarded to the school (as a part of the cerification process) and then disbursed to you.

[queencruella]

Here's one -

Can you always borrow the maximum in federal loans, regardless of what your LS budget is and whether you've got most of it covered?

You can only borrow up to the amount of the student budget - scholarships/grants you get from the school, so if you get a full ride, you won't be able to get any more than enough to cover living expenses for the year.

In terms of EFC, that will not affect your ability to get the full $20,500 in Stafford loans although you may have to get it all unsubsidized. The only time the EFC is used for law school is for schools to decide whether you qualify for grants. Otherwise you're welcome to borrow up to the student budget even if you have savings.