No help from FAFSA

ask them why you dont' quilify - it is your right to know, you may have to push them to cough it up tho

Unfortunately, the FAFSA looks mostly at income, not expenses. It also takes into account your dependents (you provide 50% or more of their support) and assets. Many people are suprised to find out that they do not qualify for federal grants due to the information reported on their FAFSA. As far as arguing, there is little room to do so. The FAFSA contains a complex calculation that is used to determine grant eligibility. Your federal taxes are the basis and they're pretty straight forward. The only argument you would have would be if you make less money now than what you reported on your taxes, but it would need to be a considerable difference. On the bright side, the FAFSA will make you eligible for low-interest federal Stafford loans regardless of your income.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this fristrated us when our daughter went to college. She was able to get help through the FASFA, but there were so many issues that arose whit her being under 22, and looking at our income, which was already below poverty, but they still gave her less because of our income. What was even worse yet, was going to an awards thing that she was a part of because of her high point average, and honor role and groups, and all sorts of stuff, and watching all the kids in town that came from lawyers, doctors, computer science geeks, etc, and hearing that they were chosen because of their finacial need, and our daughter walked out with a $500.00 scholarship! The doctor, and lawyers kids, oh they got $25,000.00 and big dollar grants like that from Eli Lilly, and places like that. I know how you are feeling, and especially how your parents are feeling.

I had the same problem. I was older and out of the house for years and they still wanted my parents gross income as a base. Now granted their unadjusted gross income was high, but the net profit after expenses wasn't. My parents had a few rentals along with mortgages on them. The rents were only a bit more than expenses. They didn't make a lot of profit. The financial aid people wanted the rental income counted before the mortgage and expenses were deducted to count as income. That put them over the top for me to get aid. It sucked.