Is there ever a reason not to fill out? There is no way we qualify for need based aid and I don’t think any of our schools require it for merit aid.
Originally I thought if not this year, we might have a shot at some $ next year when we’ll have two in college. But now they’re getting rid of that as a factor so may not be worth it?
Are there any downsides to filling out (other than time) - like schools assuming you need $$ or else can’t afford it?
FAFSA is no longer cutting the EFC in half for siblings in college at the same time, but CSS schools will still make their own decisions so you should check with the schools.
If you really don’t need or qualify for need based aid, it is up to you whether you complete the FAFSA or not. Your student will be able to take a direct loan on their name if you complete the form ($5500 for freshman year). But for the loan only, you can wait and complete the form later if you decide you need that loan.
The forms are a big pain to fill out and if you’re not going to get money, I think it’s just wasted time. Also, not applying could have benefits in applications to need-aware schools, and honestly, even to “need-blind” schools. “Need blind” schools (like Ivies) literally ask you on your application if you are applying for financial aid, and they use your ZIP code to guesstimate your family financial situation (came out in the lawsuit). If it could help, why not give yourself the potential advantage, especially if there is no chance you’re getting aid?
Also keep in mind that some colleges require FAFSA/CSS file freshmen year in order to give aid in future year; if you have no need now, but may have need later on, some colleges will not give aid later on without FAFSA/CSS on hand from freshman year.
This is absolutely true for international students at most colleges. BUT it’s not true for U.S. citizens or permanent residents at most places. What colleges do you know that require filing freshman year for U.S. citizens and permanent residents?
There are some where you can’t apply the very next year. IIRC, Skidmore had that policy on the past. If you didn’t apply freshman year, you had to wait until junior year to apply for institutional aid. I don’t know if that’s still true…or not.
Some CSS Profile schools may still keep the financial benefit to having multiple kids in college at the same time, so if you think one of both students may be at a CSS Profile school, it’s likely worth filling out the forms.
Also, I would run the NPCs before you determine that you won’t qualify. Some of the income levels at the more generous schools are fairly high vis a vis need-based aid, and many don’t include home equity amongst the parental assets, and none include IRAs, 401ks, and other true retirement assets. And non-retirement assets are usually (although apparently not always) assessed at around 5%. So its often worth it to run the NPCs at all the schools of interest, just to make sure. (And you need to do it for each school, because each school can have their own methodology for their own institutional funds. Also, there is the typical caveat that for families that own a business or that have rental property or where the parents are divorced, that the NPCs are often not accurate).
We don’t qualify but filled it out every year for our 5 kids just in case our financial situation changed (job loss, one income). So glad, 3 kids got Covid relief checks from their universities, they were happy.
If you know your schools don’t require it for merit, no need to fill it out. Some years i do it just in case we might need the student loan, but no reason otherwise.
Personal call.
If you’re considering a loan, then you should do it.
We did it and I had an EFC over $100K.
Did it help? Nope.
Would I do it again - yep? You never know.
But totally a personal call.
I did the IRS download and it was relatively easy.
But really up to you.
We know a good number of full-pay families who do not bother. They do usually run the NPC at a college or two to get the idea, but pretty quickly they confirm they are not going to be eligible for some fairly obvious and unchangeable reason, and that’s that.
I’m glad that worked out for you. In the event of year-to-year changes in financial situation, we were given the option of submitting every year, so we would have been able to receive aid if our financial situation had changed. I think that is true for most schools. For mid-year changes in financial situation, a friend of ours who was receiving aid (from Wellesley) had this problem during COVID and was not allowed to submit an updated form during the year; instead she had to wait for the following year’s FAFSA forms. Not sure if this was typical or not.
I will add - we got covid money back from both schools and I may be wrong - but I think it was tied to submitting FAFSA vs. not. We got different amounts from each school. If I remember correctly, I was told it was because we had a FAFSA on file. And it wasn’t chump change we got.
Not that there will be covid or other money going forward but you never know.
Were you receiving aid already? Or do you think you would have gotten money for submitting the forms, even if you were well above threshold for aid?
Thanks, now that I think of it, I think common apps already submitted— we did already say, don’t plan to apply for need based aid. Not sure if I inadvertently locked us out of being able to fill out anyway now.
I’ve tried the calculator on some schools and it pretty much shows full cost EFC. Although if I enter sibling in college, it reduces EFC slightly. So this year with only one kid in college, no way will we get anything. But we may want to take a shot next year with two in college.
The federal loans are also something I would want to take advantage of because they’re basically no/low interest, right? So they would help with cash flow regardless.
Skidmore still is one. I think I accidentally read the wrong thing on the college websites🤦♀️. Sorry about that! I did see that there were a few colleges that were very vague/ambiguous about it on their website. For example, UMiami:
Nope - my EFC was over $100K and the tuition at Bama was like $3K after merit and at C of C, we pay no tuition and get a refund due to merit.
I maybe wrong it was FAFSA filing based but I recall my wife saying that - it was like $500 at one and maybe $300 or $700 at the other.
I found this link. Our EFC was well above these listed ($104K on my second kid) and we didn’t get near this much as the links shows and I think I only put in FAFSA first year. Or maybe my wife had me fill it out when the announcement came up as they likely sent it to all families. I can’t remember. I thought it was nutty they were sending money - but they were so why not take it? I honestly don’t remember the facts around it but it’s just in my mind that it had to do with FAFSA.
Anyway, it’s totally up to the family as to what they did. But FAFSA isn’t hard to fill out - not if you use the IRS tool.
Good luck what ever the family decides.
Yeah, ok, so my recollection isn’t off. Thanks for verifying. Couldn’t be 100% sure but thought so.
Thanks - if we submitted common app already for some schools and marked don’t plan to apply for need based aid, does that mean we’ve shut ourselves out from filling out forms?
Technically we’re not applying for it, but if there’s low interest loans available we wouldn’t turn that away. Also I think next year, we’d like to apply so if we need to apply this year to have the option next year, that would be different.
I think the federal loan rate is at 5.5% right now.