On a college FAFSA, what is the real impact?

Question

My fiance has a son at an expensive private university. With her single income, he gets about $30K in financial aid, between scholarships and FAFSA. She is concerned that when we marry, and FAFSA considers my income also, his tuition will skyrocket by up to that additional $30K. She pays $20K now.

The issue is, I also have two kids in college and pay child support, etc., so I would not be able to assist with her son's tuition, and her income would not be able to support the tuition increase.

Does anyone have experience dealing with this situation? He is not old enough to be declared as "independent."

Thanks for the constructive help!

Answer 1

your income will be considered.  so will the fact that you have 2 in college if you are the one who fills out the fafsa for your kids.  However, if you are not the custodial parent of your 2 and you dont provide your financial info for their fafsa, that will probably not be taken into consideration though the child support might.   there is a way to do a pretend fafsa on the website to get an idea of what the outcome may be.  try it and see how it comes out.

You may want to hold off on the legal marriage until the step kid is done with college.

Answer 2

If I remember correctly, the FAFSA has a section for the parents that allows them to claim how much child support they pay.  That would be taken into consideration.