Marriage and Financial Aid

[bgreenster]

I can't find anything like this on here, so hopefully I'm not repeating a past topic.

I'm going to be applying for my master's with a Fall 2012 start, and am trying to think about the financial issues. I am currently in the Peace Corps, and engaged to somebody back at home. I am undoubtedly poor, having spent the past five years since finishing undergrad teaching English, traveling, and volunteering. I feel that because of this, I may be able to get some need-based financial aid.

My current dilemma is this: my fiance and I were thinking of getting married sometime in the next year, before I start grad school. He actually has a really good job and has been making good money for the past several years so I am concerned that once married, I will lose out on some chances of financial aid. The thing is, I don't want to have to pay more out of pocket simply because he has money, when it's for my education, you know?

Could anyone tell me if this is a reasonable or unreasonable concern? The whole financial aid side of this still seems to be beyond my complete comprehension. I feel like financially I might be better off putting off marriage until after graduate school, although non-practically, I don't really relish that thought.

Thanks in advance!

[anthropologygeek]

Well in grad school the only finacial aide is student loans. The schools can offer an assistantship which covers vary.

[JMont]

Hi,

I had the same problem. I got married last September and had to put my husbands income on my fasfa. He makes nearly double my salary so I was worried it would negativly impact me. Some schools offer merit aid which has nothing to do with income. I was very lucky and got a merit scholarship (20K). So, it does suck but once you are married there is no around it (trust me I have tried). Try researching whether or not the schools you are interested in offer merit aid. Other than that you could wait to get married, but if you are in love why wait!

[bgreenster]

Hmm... I guess I need to look more into it. I was reading things about need-based scholarships as well as federal aid through FAFSA, etc. I understand that a lot of it is through assistantships and fellowships, but as far as I was aware, some of those fellowships are based on need. Also, some loans are given at a lower or no interest rate if you have a lower income, I thought. Is this not the case?

As I thought more about it, I'm thinking I can wait and see if I do get anything based on having an essentially non-existent income, then put off getting married... but if I don't get anything we can go ahead with our original plans.

[bgreenster]

Hi,

I had the same problem. I got married last September and had to put my husbands income on my fasfa. He makes nearly double my salary so I was worried it would negativly impact me. Some schools offer merit aid which has nothing to do with income. I was very lucky and got a merit scholarship (20K). So, it does suck but once you are married there is no around it (trust me I have tried). Try researching whether or not the schools you are interested in offer merit aid. Other than that you could wait to get married, but if you are in love why wait!

Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one (I figured I couldn't be! ha) Luckily, a couple of the schools I am applying to are in the Peace Corps Fellows program, which would be helpful. Otherwise, this whole financial aid thing is completely overwhelming; it's hard even knowing where to start! I just don't want to blow any chances of getting money over something I can still control.

[Teelee]

I believe if your combined income is very high (for example >100k/year), you will quality for student loan up to 20k each year.

[bgreenster]

I believe if your combined income is very high (for example >100k/year), you will quality for student loan up to 20k each year.

What kind of student loan do you mean? I'm sorry, I'm kind of in over my head with the financial aspect of this process! I didn't think getting a student loan was difficult, I was mostly concerned with it having a low interest rate if I ended up having to go that route.

Would this mean that if I'm unable to get anything need-based or other regular funding, I would be better off having a higher income? That makes sense, but is the timing any different, so that I could see what happened based on my personal income and then go the loan route if I'm SOL? The difference is huge: I've literally made less than 10k in the past 3 years, whereas my fiance is in a very secure financial situation (but not so much so that my grad school education wouldn't be a major blow). I am very uncomfortable with the idea of him having to pay my way, regardless that married couples technically share finances, etc.

Apologies if I sound stupid, and I really appreciate the replies.

[Teelee]

You can quality for Direct Stafford Loan (approx. 6.8% interest), make sure to fill out your FAFSA.

However, if you are interested in low interest rates and you have a good credit (or your co-signer has good credit) you can get private student loans with a lower APR (approx >4.05%) at places like citibank or Salliemae (2.5% up to 10.5%).

After you have taken out all the loans and completed your degree, you can always consolidate your school loans and get a lower percentage.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Teelee

[Teelee]

I know this may sound risky however, if you have to take out a smaller loan <5k and you know you can pay it off within the next few months, I would even suggest opening up a new credit card that offers 0% interest for a year and put it on that and pay it off in 5 months. When I was in undergrad I had to pay school tuition of 3k per semester and just worked it off using 0% APR cards.

[bgreenster]

Right on, thanks Teelee. Luckily, I do have really good credit so that could definitely be an option (one good thing about being older, ha).

Okay, panic has temporarily subsided.

Related to all this, I'm under the impression that the FAFSA is based on your previous year's taxes, but is being used for the following school year. So ostensibly, I could just wait until after the first year of school, fill out the second year's FAFSA and that will cover the second year? Then a change in finances wouldn't matter... or am I completely in lala-land?

Ugh, I'm hoping I just get Peace Corps fellowships and such, and don't have to deal with this!

[Teelee]

Your FAFSA for 2011-2012 would be based on the taxes filed this year, which is the amount of money you made last year. So if your spouse makes a lot more money this year, it will not be calculated until next year (2012-2013 FAFSA).

[rowlf]

I thought I would comment on this since I keep bumping into this thread.

Just to clarify, yes, your FAFSA is based on last year's tax return. However, the marital status is 100% your status as of the day you file the FAFSA. If you file while married, but use a tax return from when you were single, you will still need to put your tax information along with your spouse's. Your spouse's income will contribute to your family adjusted gross income.

On the other hand, if you complete and submit the FAFSA the day before you get married, you are single for that year. My advice to anyone who is marrying someone who makes more money is, if possible, to file the FAFSA before marrying. Of course, that will only delay it one year and many people get married in the summer so probably do that anyway.

Your FAFSA for 2011-2012 would be based on the taxes filed this year, which is the amount of money you made last year. So if your spouse makes a lot more money this year, it will not be calculated until next year (2012-2013 FAFSA).

[bgreenster]

A year later, I can share what ended up happening. As we could see, I really had no idea about how all this financial aid worked in grad school. I filled out my FAFSA after applying, and qualified for the loans for each school I was accepted to. My impression, though, was that basically everyone qualified for those loans... at least that's what it seemed like when the financial people at the admitted students day were talking about it. (Obviously, I could be WAY off on this, esp since I mostly applied to programs with small cohorts)

Fortunately, I ended up getting a full tuition scholarship, so I only have to worry about cost of living. With that being the case, it doesn't really make sense for me to take out loans (since my fiancee has a job). The ones offered to me, though, were basically to cover what the school files as the cost of living each year (so, for example, at Gtown we were all offered 65k in loans to cover tuition and COL). With that being the case, it doesn't seem like your marital status makes a difference in the procurement of loans. I had kind of thought it was like with undergrad, where students got better gov't loans with lower incomes (or being independent)... and correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem to be the case for grad school.