Don't worry, this is a common question for many students. The good news is that the Department of Education doesn't have an official income cutoff to qualify for federal financial aid. So, even if you think your parents' income is too high, it's still worth applying (plus, it's free to apply).
Students often skip filling out the FAFSA because they think their families make too much money to qualify for aid. However, there are no FAFSA income limits, so you can submit it—and potentially get valuable financial aid—regardless of your family's earnings.
If you think you or your parents make too much to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), you're wrong. There are no income limits on the FAFSA. Instead, your eligibility for federal student aid depends on how much your college costs and what your family should contribute.
There are no set income cutoffs for financial aid because of the number of factors that are included in the need-based calculation beyond income. Unless parents are in a situation where they don't need money for their child to go to school, everyone should fill out the FAFSA.
Let us set the record straight here… There are NO income limits for completing the FAFSA. It merely establishes your expected family contribution (EFC) for needs-based federal financial aid. It is true that most wealthy families will not qualify for this type of needs-based aid.
In fact, the Department of Education has made clear there are no upper-income limits for financial aid. And most schools emphasize that parental income isn't the only factor considered when determining who may be eligible for assistance.
A student may already be financially independent, but they're not considered legally independent for the FAFSA until they reach 24 years old — unless they qualify for a dependency override. In that case, you can fill out the FAFSA without your parents' or guardians' financial information.
For example, if your citizenship status changed because your visa expired or it was revoked, then you would be ineligible. Other reasons for financial aid disqualification include: Not maintaining satisfactory progress at your college or degree program. Not filling out the FAFSA each year you are enrolled in school.
Your EFC might be high enough to disqualify you from need-based aid, like grants, but you might still be able to get federal work-study or get federal student and parent loans. In order to access federal student loans and other types of financial aid, you need to fill out the FAFSA.
That often means using a combination of need-based grants, scholarships, work-study, loans, savings and current income. Many colleges work with families to set up payment plans for out-of-pocket costs.
If you're a dependent student, the FAFSA will attempt to measure your family's financial strength to determine your expected family contribution. Therefore, your family's taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as funds collected through unemployment or Social Security) should be entered into the FAFSA.
EFC is based on the parents' and student's income and assets. A high EFC is likely the result of high income or a high value of assets as reported on the FAFSA. Assets considered include bank account balances, capital gains and, sometimes, equity held in businesses and real estate.
The maximum Federal Pell Grant for the 2023–24 award year (July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024) is $7,395. The amount an individual student may receive depends on a number of factors. Learn more via the links below: Learn what factors go into determining the amount of Pell Grant funding a student receives.
For the 2023–24 award year, the maximum Pell Grant award is $7,395. These funds can be used to pay for school-related expenses at eligible two-year community colleges, career schools, online schools, and four-year colleges and universities.
The basic theory is that the lower your EFC, the bigger your financial aid award. A family with an adjusted income of $50,000 and two dependents would expect to have an EFC of around $3,800 without considering any other financial assets. A family with income of $100,000, would have an EFC of approximately $20,000.
If your parents or guardians refuse to pay for college, your best options may be to file the FAFSA as an independent. Independent filers are not required to include information about their parents' income or assets. As a result, your EFC will be very low and you will probably get a generous financial aid offer.
On December 29, 2022, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, which included a $500 increase to the maximum Pell Grant. The maximum Pell Grant award for the 2023-2024 award year is $7,395, and the corresponding maximum Pell Grant eligible expected family contribution (EFC) is 6656.
Some types of information that might be verified include income, taxes, education tax credits, child support, high school completion status or number of members in your household. You can reduce the chances of a verification by importing information from your FAFSA directly from the IRS's data retrieval tool.
To determine eligibility, the information on your FAFSA is used to calculate your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Your EFC is used to determine your eligibility for a Federal Pell Grant, school-based aid, and Federal Subsidized Stafford and Direct Subsidized Loan Programs.
The verification process involves submitting documents such as tax transcripts and W-2 forms so the financial aid office at your college can see that the information on these documents matches your FAFSA application.
According to financial advisor Jordan Gilberti at Facet, most families should still fill out the FAFSA even if they have a high income since some schools require this form in order to receive merit-based aid.
But you might be surprised to learn that there are no FAFSA income limits to qualify for aid. For example, a family with a household income of hundreds of thousands of dollars could be helped by other factors in the FAFSA formula, including school costs and the number of siblings also attending school.
There are favorable non-need-based loans that students from even the wealthiest families will qualify for, so if you want your child to take on some of the responsibility for financing his or her own education, or if you want to consider federal borrowing options yourself, you will need to complete a FAFSA to access ...
Even some merit-based scholarships offered by colleges and universities require applicants to file the FAFSA. Thus, many college planning experts recommend that students from higher-income households also fill out the FAFSA (or, if your college instructs you, the CSS Financial Aid Profile form).
The maximum amount of money you can get from a Pell Grant is: $7,395 (2023–24). The amount granted depends on your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), cost of attendance, your status as a full-time or part-time student, and your plans to attend school for a full academic year or less.