How can I qualify for FAFSA when I have investments/savings?

The point of financial aid is need. You don’t need it. Fill it out and see what happens. Or try for scholarships.

what the hell? Why on earth should we, the taxpayers, pay for your college education, when you’re more than capable of paying for it yourself?

Do you understand that you’re asking us to help you cheat us out of our money?

The expectation is that you fund your education in the best way that you can. If you have $115,000 and are not over the age of 50, you are expected to contribute that money to your own education. You will most likely only qualify for unsubsidized loans, which means 8% loans. Are your investments earning over 8 – 16% a year?

An education is considered an investment.

Use up all of your savings and cashed-out investments. Wait a year. Apply again.

Seriously. I have a not-even-very-rich job and can’t get aid. I’d have to quit my job, exist for a year somehow on no income, and apply. That’s how it is.

This “transferring resources to parents to game the system” idea would be considered fraud and is a bad idea.

@MrItty I think what the OP wants to do is lame. But the FAFSA can be used for getting student loans, which is not free money.

@Likeradar and in your mind, that money comes from…. where, exactly?

It’s also used for need-based scholarships and grants, which is free money.

FAFSA is an application; you don’t have to qualify for it.
( Free Application for Federal Student Aid)

@MrItty It’s a loan, which I don’t see as cheating the taxpayers out of money. I’m also terrible at economics. Can you explain it to me?
Need-based grants and scholarships is a different issue. This person clearly should not be receiving those.

@thriftymaid – Anyone can fill out the application. You are right. But you can’t have very much money at all if you want that filling-out to result in real financial aid instead of an hour of wasted time.

@Iaureth I found it discouraging that a grad student framed such a question in the first place. You have to fill out the FAFSA to even get state grants which do not take into account assets. It would be less than prudent for any student to not fill out the application. If an hour was precious, I doubt the guy would be on a QA site; looks like he signed up here just today.

@Likeradar The Stafford loans come in two forms – subsidized and unsubsidized. If the loan is subsidized, it’s interest-free while the student is enrolled in school, and for 6 months thereafter. Even if it’s an unsubsidized loan, the payments and interest can be deferred until 6 months after graduation.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/college-planning/financial-aid/stafford-loans2.htm shows that the interest rate on these loans will be 4.5% for 2010–2011 and 3.4% for 2011–2012.

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Calculators/Inflation_Rate_Calculator.asp#calcresults shows that the inflation rate for the last four years – from March 2006 to March 2010 – is 8.92%.

Even if the entirety of the loan was unsubsidized, and accrued interest, the $10,000 he is given by the tax payers this year would be worth less than the amount he’ll pay back in 4,6, or 8 years.

@MrItty Ah, got ya. I hadn’t even considered inflation. Thanks for the info!

The other bit of this that pisses me off is that Financial Aid is not unlimited. That’s why it’s “need based”. Every student who is awarded federal student aid means another student who wasn’t. This guy not only wants to cheat the taxpayers, he wants to deprive someone who actually does need the money from getting it.