Not full need to zero, no, but when I enter 3 in school at the same time into the NPCs there is a dramatic increase in aid.
Of course i"m doing it for 2023 but plugging in one in college versus 3 in college to compare. The new SAI coming in 2024 will not take into consideration multiple siblings in college simultaneously. Wonât most colleges simply follow that guidance? It would be in their financial interest to do so.
None of us can predict what colleges will do with their own money. SorryâŠcanât do that.
Aside from UM, Michigan schools donât have robust need based financial aid for families that are not low income. I am from Michigan & used to work in financial aid. Even when I had two in college, my child who attended in state publics (he transferred sophomore year, so attended two publics) didnât get need based aid from either school. The good news is that he got decent merit scholarships. There are automatic merit scholarships available at a number of Michigan schools, so look for those. His lack of ECâs meant that my S wouldnât have been a contender for merit unless it was strictly based on grades and test scores ⊠and fortunately, that type of scholarship was available.
I thought they did but upon further investigation it seems like they all have their own formulas even though many of them use the same template of questions. I shouldnât have assumed.
There is a difference in financial aid awards between schools because each school has its own budget & its own awarding policies. For example, one public U where I worked had a policy of making sure the average cost of tuition was covered by a combination of EFC & gift aid. Any outside scholarships would reduce the schoolâs institutional grant, though. The schoolâs board of governors had determined that this was the awarding policy that best served its goal of assuring that all students had a minimum level of financial support (which included the expected contribution from the family). My Sâs school did not have this policy, so a student at that school could very well be offered less aid than they would be offered at the school where I worked. Michigan schools each have their own policies that are developed to best meet the needs of their student population within the constraints of their budget.
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Hmm, perhaps no one knows the answer. I just wanted to bump this question up once in case someone knows. Basically looking at the income cutoffs, I can already see in advance that based on family size, my kids will qualify for the maximum pell grant. Will they still have to fill out the rest of the FAFSA (potentially resulting in a quite high parent contribution)? Or would we just get to stop after Step 1 instead of moving on to calculate the student aid index?
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@kelsmom will clarify. Since this doesnât happen for a year, it might be hard to answer now. BUT in the past, any fields that the student doesnât need to complete will either not show, or will be greyed outâŠand wonât need to be completed.
You will be required to fill out any fields that remainâŠ.because actually all of these determine your eligibility for the Pell Grant, not just family size, I believe.
Thanks. Unless I am misunderstanding what kelsmom wrote earlier, it seems pretty clear that my kids will qualify for the maximum pell grant under the ânew alternative procedureâ that she mentions. I am just really confused about what that means for our SAI or even if we will still have one. To be honest, I am somewhat confused about what the SAI means though I get that it is supposed to be clearer to families than the term EFC. But how are colleges going to use the student aid index?
You are probably right, the answer is that we are just going to have to wait until next fall and see. My oldest only applied to CSS profile schools so maybe it is only the Pell Grant eligibility really matters and I donât have to worry so much about what the FAFSA determines should be my contribution.
I honestly donât know how itâs going to work. I havenât seen anything more than what I posted. The Federal Student Aid conference was last week, and there may have been information presented there. Once they post the sessions, Iâll look. However, I think it will probably be awhile before we know exactly how this will work.
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In reviewing some information presented at last weekâs FSA conference, I noted the following: The IRS DRT is being replaced with a direct data exchange between FSA (the FAFSA folks) and the IRS. This requires active consent from any party whose information is to be shared. If a couple files as married filing separately, both parties will have to provide their consent. Applicants who do not provide consent for this direct exchange will be able to submit a FAFSA, but âeligibility wonât be calculated.â I assume this means that an SAI will not be provided, and students will need to provide information directly to each school for review. I donât know how this will work exactly, but my guess is that no aid will be able to be calculated until the school has reviewed the information & updated the FAFSA to show that this was done. This is definitely a change.
I have found that low income students get 100% help, with no holes in meeting it. I find middle class students get almost zero help and parents gettign essentially punished for owning a home. Who would be expected to sell a home to pay for college if the family lives there. In our case for example, our home tripled from what we paid but we arenât selling it and canât be blamed for 350K people moving to FL and inflating real estate last year. What provisions are there to help the middle class families. I almost hate to suggest kids apply at famous schools bc of that, they will get all excited to get in but unless on the poverty line there is very little help.
College Navigator - University of Florida indicates that while University of Florida gives very good FA to low income (< $30,000) family students, those from the middle and higher range still get a substantial discount (net price of $11,831 for students from $75,001-$110,000 income families, an d $13,836 for students from $110,001+ income families). That is a far cry from âzero helpâ.
If FAFSA takes primary home value into account in determining the EFC/SAI, thatâs news to me.
Edited to add: We are far from the poverty line, we have quite a lot of equity in our home, and we got pretty good need-based aid. This is reflected in our SAI and the need-based awards that our son has been offered so far. Most of the schools have gotten us pretty close to the SAI. Thatâs more than we can afford, but it at least seems fair to me.
Value of the home is not a factor for FAFSA, and for the very few schools that consider it ⊠if a parent truly wanted to send their kid there & couldnât pay any other way, at least they would have equity to borrow against.
I take issue with a blanket statement that low income students have their need fully met. That is not true. While some students in some states may be eligible for a full tuition + full room + full board grant or scholarship/grant, I donât think Iâm going out on a limb to say that not all low income students can get into their state school that offers this. I worked at a state school dedicated to access. The vast majority of low income students from the urban district where the school was located rarely had the academic background or scores to get into our state flagship ⊠the only school that offers to meet need, but only for tuition. OTOH, LOTS of students were admitted from my kidsâ high schools. Some of them got free tuition, Iâm sure, but I suspect that most did not.
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Could one of you post the recent article about the changes upcomingâŠand some issues with timing?
Here are FAFSA changes from 2021 to 2024-25âs coming changes in a handy dandy table format:
Here are links to additional info that some people may find helpful:
This is an additional readâŠ
https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/29976/FSA_Noncommittal_on_October_1_FAFSA_Launch_Date
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