As you go through the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, it can be beneficial to comprehend a number of the different factors that can and can affect how the federal government determines your EFC or Expected Family Contribution. Here you will find a brief overview of a few of the more important factors and take a look at how they can influence your grants for single mothers for better, or for worse.
Factor One: Parent’s Age
Why should age the parent’s have any bearing on grants for single mothers? Because the older the parents, the less time they have to plan retirement. And so the older they are, the reduced their EFC will be if other factors were equal. This may also mean more grants for single mothers.
Factor Two: Parent’s Marital Status
Divorced or separated parents may have a lesser EFC if the student lives with the parent which has a lower taxable income at the time of filing the FAFSA. This is often a very strategic move for many families once they start to look at the best way to be eligible for a grants for single mothers and pay for college.
Factor Three: Number of Members of the family in School
If you will find multiple member of the family in school at the same time, the household EFC can be even less, which will help to offer more grants for single mothers. Being a student can also mean one of the parents that’s in school. If this is the case or even a consideration, you may want to explore this further to see just how much it may lessen your overall EFC and save yourself.
Factor Four: Includable Assets
You will find very specific categories of assets that have to be included in your FAFSA and these assets may have an adverse affect your EFC calculation. The important thing to lowering your EFC and boosting your grants for single mothers is to get the areas you could control and reduce these includable assets by shifting them into non-includable areas.
Factor Five: Parent’s Adjusted Revenues
For most families today, you will find methods to reduce your adjusted revenues (AGI), knowing what they’re and also have the means and need to take advantage of them. If you reduce your AGI by simply $5, 000, it can have substantial effect on your EFC. I have personally found ways to reduce my own family AGI by much more than that annually which has received a really nice impact on our grants for single mothers. Most families possess some power to do exactly the same, but haven’t, which is a very costly mistake.
Summary:
As you can see, you will find lot of factors that will work on your side or work against you when it comes to grants for single mothers.