Marraige - Its (positive?) Effects on College Financial Aid.

Hey All,
I'm thinking about getting married sometime this fall/spring and I'm very curious as to the financial ramifications. I've read a good bit on the topic, and have discussed the matter with several College Aid Officers (as well as parents) and I'm looking for some constructive feedback.


My Situation:

- Me and My Girlfriend have been together for two years now, are head-over-heels in love, and are ready to live together/get married
- She is currently attending Villanova University, I am attending Drexel University
- We will be living together next year regardless of our marital status
- Her tuition is ~40k/yr including room and board (~10k)and she receives 10k in Aid. (Parents make ~100k and have one other child)
- My tuition is ~35k/yr including room and board (10k). I'm getting about 15k in Aid. (Parents make ~75k, have one other child, and mothers student loans)


With that being said, here is what I am predicting (hoping):

1. Marraige will change both of us to indepentents - with our combined income being less than 10k/yr. This should put our ability to pay for college to almost nothing according to FAFSA; creating a 100% need.
2. We will be liiving together so we will pay about 10k combined for rent, food, and other expenses (car/health/life insurance etc...) during the period we are at school. This brings Villanova's tuition to 30k and Drexel's tuition to 25k
3. Judging by previous Financial Aid Amounts, I am expecting her to receive about 25k in Aid, and I am expecting to receive about 20k in Aid.


The Math:

before,
40k
35k
-10k
-15k
Equals ~50k debt incurred yearly (combined)

after,
30k
25k
10k
-25k
-20k
Equals ~20k debt incurred yearly


By these numbers (which are accurate to the best of my ability and knowledge) we will be saving nearly $90,000 throughout the remaining 3 years of our college career's. This is a very substantial amount and I'm really interested to see if any of you have experience with the issue, or have different (more) information.


I'm new to posting, so please take it easy if I missed something.

I'd be willing to bet that most recruiters have heard of Drexel University... I'm not so sure I'd say the same about "Charter Oak College." Not that it should matter if the latter is actually a competitive program (I have not done any research into it whatsoever), but the fact is that it does.

Thanks for all the feedback, it has been interesting.

No one has addressed the married vs. unmarried financial aid question though? Does anyone have experience to back up my projected numbers?

k2god said:

My Situation:

- Me and My Girlfriend have been together for two years now, are head-over-heels in love, and are ready to live together/get married


those two things (live together/get married) are NOT the same thing....

Hey,

I would love to find out what happens for you. At this point in time, Drexel is giving me absolutely nothing, parent's combined income is about 75-80. I'm a commuter so I don't need to pay for room and board, but i'll live on campus if the extra debt is what gets me money. G/f and I have been together for a little under 2 years and she goes to temple and gets nothing. The tuition isn't up there with villanova but obviously she would still like some money

You ntioned co-op but it didnt seem like you had one yet, I'm just wondering what your major is also.

I guess the advice I'd give you is to ignore atleast 85% of what Drexel staff tell you. Welcome to the Drexel Shaft.

Sanosuk65 - I'm glad to hear that EFC does indeed go straight to 0 with marriage (I'm fairly sure its accross the board too). On top of that, it is beneficial to go to a school that pledges to help thos with financial need; I think drexel tries to meet 85% of a students need for example. I was actually accepted to Penn State, however, they didn't meet ANY of my need and therefore were more expensive than drexel. Interesting how that works out.

Welookgoodcom - I agree the career center will be one of our greatest resources. I am not so attached to Drexel however.

VeryHungary - True, they are not. They will, however, coincide for us. Neither of us has our own appartment or house and are therefore limited from living together until we are actually married. That being said, We have spent an average of 3 nights a week "living" at the same house and have been on at least 5 weeks of vacation where we were alone and together 24hrs daily. I am convinced that we are ready (please it is hard being apart!) to get married AND live together

QuantumX - Drexel Staff that bad eh? Nah I'm happy to be attending though - and no I don't have my co-op yet. I'm surprised you aren't getting any aid from Drexel - my parents make about the same amount but we got a good bit of aid (some was merit-based). It may be my parents have my mothers college loans to pay of still (she recently went back to college and got her master's degree). As far as saving money - I don't think moving into the dorms will help much, it may cancel itself out, but I dont think it would be advantageous. You and your GF might want to look into getting married - you would almost surely receive aid afterwords.

FAFSA May not look at outstanding debt, they do however look at current bank balances etc... That may have something to do with it, I am not sure.

I also know many couples who have been together for a long time only to break up over something silly usually, I do think we are different. (I guess everyone does when the get married)

The fact of the matter is, ya can't go running your life by what happens to other people. I am in love and want to get married - so what if it hasn't worked out for other people no big.

How many 18yr olds do you know have a flourishing commodity tradeing buisiness? probably not many - I like to consider myself at least a bit different.

Anyhow, I didn't origianlly think of it as a tool to be used financially either. It was when I started researching the reprocutions of it that I realized there are some benefits.

For the sake of this thread and being helpful to me and other FW'ers let's leave the "to get married or not" question to rest.

I have already been through more discussion then I can believe and would prefer to focus in on the financial questions and issues.

And - Thanks to those who have already given adive.

My friend, before you take the plunge for the sake of LOVE! You need to check this website out! I don't neccessarily agree with everything this JOE has written, but he does have some valid points that one should ponder upon.

http://www.dontmarry.com/

JohnMagee4 - Thanks for the insight with regard to the financials; it is always nice to know I'm at least close to the target. As far as the "college experience" I will have had a year of it and my girlfriend will have had two. In all honesty, I think I've had my fill lol (it's not easy for me to share a room).

kcam67 - Thanks for the link, I am ALWAYS interested in reading other perspectives; dontmarry.com certainly has a lot to say about marraige.

marabout - I am not in financial trouble by any means, the financial aid is a way to reduce my total expenditure. Currently my company is not being considered at all financially because 100% of the net income is immediatily reinvested into the company itself. Technically I haven't been paid a dime.

kcam67 said: My friend, before you take the plunge for the sake of LOVE!
Don't bother. There is no saving him now.
Ya know, we laugh at things like Vince Vaughn coughing "don't do it". I laughed in the breezeway before my wedding when someone said to me "It's not too late, I have a car out front, you don't have to do this." If only I knew...

I am not in financial trouble by any means, the financial aid is a way to reduce my total expenditure. Currently my company is not being considered at all financially because 100% of the net income is immediatily reinvested into the company itself. Technically I haven't been paid a dime.

well, between that and getting married, you'll be successfully scamming your school(s) out of thousands. i hope there aren't kids who actually NEED the money who are left out in the cold because of your greediness.

~fiasco

kingofblacks said: Your statement reminds me of a quote by George Carlin: "If you take just enough philosophy in college, you'll be screwed up for the rest of your life."

And if you happened to major in it... never mind, you don't want to know.

massfiasco said:

well, between that and getting married, you'll be successfully scamming your school(s) out of thousands. i hope there aren't kids who actually NEED the money who are left out in the cold because of your greediness.

~fiasco


As a student of Drexel I can tell you now that they don't help many people as it is, it almost seems like they throw darts to figure who gets help and who does not. The ONLY upside to the program is the co-op.

10k/year = ~800/month for rent.

I live in Philly, so here's another suggestion, after you guys get married, rent a bigger townhouse in South or West philly. You can easily rent a 3br townhouse for ~$800/month in the "ok" areas. After that, get some friends from college to be your housemates and make them eacy pay $250/month for a room. Make sure you get nice friends. You and your wife only need one room in the house (take the biggest one). This way you're only paying ~$300/month for living = ~$3600/year. That's quite a saving IMO.

Some examples:
House1
House2

Make sure you check out Philadelphia Weekly for rental listings. This is the ultimate place to find rentals in Philly.

Good luck!!

Oh Yea...

I am happy though, and in my humble opinion that is pretty important.