Aymee

It depends on the state. Alaska, Arizona, Calfornia, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin are non-recourse ( http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-stash/when-banks-cant-go-after-defaulters ) Although I seem to recall some fine print about California and refinancing, and I thought some states limited non-recourse loans to primary residence, although this article doesn't mention that, so definitely check with someone about your individual state. The reason the average upside-down homeowner doesn't have to pay taxes on it is that you don't have to "when your total debts are more than the fair market value of your total assets" (but get a good tax preparer). This is not the same thing, and you don't necessarily have to file bankruptcy.: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=174034,00.html (Don't know why I can't get above link to work, but copy & paste and I think it will work.) As to your credit rating, I couldn't really speak to that, but it's a good question.

I should clarify. What I meant is if you owe $300k and the bank sells the house for $200k, you could wind up with a 1099-C, cancellation of debt, for $100k that you might have to pay taxes on. Although if you could prove you're insolvent (net worth $0) probably not. But that's why you should talk to someone about it first.

Whoo hoo!! Thanks!

Okay, I know next to nothing about grad school financial aid, but one of my first questions is this: I just graduated with my BA and am going to grad school. While I'm going to grad school my husband is going to be working on his BS. By the time I graduate & my husband is in grad school, my now-13-year-old will be starting college. Two years later, his now 11 year old brother will start college. I know that when you're doing financial aid for undergrad, they calculate the "expected family contribution" and so having two children in college at the same time can be an advantage. So I'm wondering, is "number of people in household in college" count students in grad school as well? Or are we going to get screwed because we're not all undergraduates at the same time? (I already feel sorta like we're getting screwed because by the time we apply for financial aid for our kids, we'll both have degrees... never mind that we spent half or more of the time raising them either working dead-end, low-paying jobs, or living on one salary while the other one went to school, and that we have a ton of student debt ourselves.)

I work preparing taxes in a military town. Because of the housing market there are a lot of military people out there right now that have found themselves unexpected landlords--Uncle Sam says "move" you don't say no! If you have any need-based aid, owning a rental can be very good for making your AGI (adjusted gross income) be lower. That's because on your taxes you get to claim depreciation on the home. This means you can be earning money--collecting more in rent than you pay on the mortgage and maintenance--and still be "losing" money according to your 1040. As to the pool... this is a question based on total ignorance, but... could you just cover up all the filters and such and fill it with dirt? Or in some other way temporarily drain it / cover it etc? And yeah, as previous poster said... if you're upside down, consider just walking away. (But consult with tax professional first or you may end up paying taxes on the amount due--or in some states even have to pay the difference anyway.)

My husband has a very good job in IT (Citrix Network Administrator, also does some programming--not his official job title, but he's better than some of the official programmers at his work.) He's self-taught, does not have a college degree. I'm applying to grad school now, and will be done in 3-5 years. With a Master's degree, I'll have tons of debt and still only be making about 70% of what he makes now. Although he's got a great job currently, his heart's desire is really to be an astrophysicist. We were planning for him to go to school in the evenings the same time I'm in grad school, to at least get his AA, possibly him BA by the time I graduate. But I'm wondering if this is the best path, or if he should just get his AA at Community College and wait to finish the last couple years of the BA until I can support him and he can either quit or work PT while going to school and concentrating more fully on his school, to have a better chance of getting into a good grad school program. We don't know much about the process, both of us have blue-collar backgrounds and I'm currently experiencing these "oh... hindsight is 20/20" and "wow, wish I knew that 4 years ago..." sorts of feelings when it comes to my grad school. (I'd never heard of fellowships or stipends until late in my senior year of college for instance.) I don't want to make the same mistakes with his school. What kinds of things should he be doing as an undergrad in order to be a better candidate? (We don't have the option of moving right now, so his choice of schools is limited to Olympia/Tacoma and MAYBE Seattle area.) Thanks.

This may be old news, but if you haven't already heard about it... I'm excited about this: http://www.ibrinfo.org/what.vp.html#pslf

I was really nervous about mentioning my family because the last research presentation I did as an undergrad was on maternal profiling & discrimination: ( http://www.feminist.com/activism/momsrising4.html ) and it was very fresh in my mind. What scared me was that when I read the comments after the stories like these, over and over again I heard from women in the field of academia. Anecdotal, but definitely seemed to keep popping up in that field. I played the middle ground with my application, mentioning my older children being almost old enough to drive--making scheduling easier for me than it was as an undergrad (I just graduated with my BA) but not mentioning my three year old. (I have three kids, 13, 11 & 3. I didn't get specific with older kids' ages though.) In the interview, I thought it didn't hurt me, and in fact helped me, because given a group interview role-play scenario that involved children, I was the only applicant in the group who was a parent. BUT, out of 35 interviewees, and 21 chosen, I didn't get accepted. So, did it hurt me? Maybe it did. I don't know. Given the choice again, I would NEVER bring it up.

Wondering, generally speaking... there's two areas of interest I have, I think I have a way to successfully combine them in a career, but I've never heard of someone going for TWO master's degrees unless it's because they want to change career paths after they already have one degree. Some of the credits would overlap (I'm still researching how many) but I've never heard of anyone doing such a thing, and I don't know how funding would work. (Although I still don't really know much about funding for ONE MA or doctorate program). Thanks. P.S. Having some trouble browsing the forums because I don't know the acronyms, and I'm very new to this. So please use complete terms! :-)