Biggest misconception I read in Cc is that “How much money will FAFSA give me?”.
I’ve been doing this for 10 years now…
I agree that a lot of people do not understand that FAFSA is not giving you money, and that EFC is just that–estimated. It is utterly nonbinding, and each college can decide how much money to give as loans, what in grants–if any. College packages vary wildly, and are largely unpredictable. Cast a wide net. Look at their own websites for large endowments and commitment to no or low debt.
If you’ve completed your tax forms, FAFSA is extremely simple and takes no longer than a half hour. You simply upload your tax returns. If you haven’t completed this year’s taxes yet, you can still use last year’s as an estimate and then adjust later.
If you qualify for Pell, you are high need as defined by EFC. There is no reason to not fill out FAFSA if you are high need as you will need help to go to any college, and Pell alone is rarely enough. Even if you go to community college and transfer to state university, you will need help if you are high need.
What the media never talks about is Profile (from College Board), which most ‘upper tier’ colleges require. Profile is a bear. Assume many hours, and then extra hours when the college tells you you didn’t do x or y right.
It is hard if your parents won’t do the FAFSA for whatever reason. You need your parents’ info in order to fill it out. As a teacher, I’ve definitely seen situations with uncooperative, vindictive, or uneducated parents. Students: You can try contacting the college to explain the situation, but unfortunately, most colleges will not accept “My parent won’t give me their info” as an excuse (it could be abused by unscrupulous people). You can also file for legal independence, but that is a process and not easy…Talk to guidance if you are having problems with FAFSA and parent info.
I live in a well-educated suburban community, but still find there are many, many clueless parents when it comes to everything about college admissions. One family I know with 5 kids who would have definitely qualified for FA for their first college student, never applied because they didn’t have their financial paperwork together on time. So I have no problem believing that less advantaged individuals simply don’t apply for FA.
One of the most valuable things we did in all of our college prep with our twins was to attend a free local seminar with a private college adviser. He explained exactly what EFC is, how it is calculated, how schools use it, and what types of schools to look at based upon what your EFC is calculated to be, along with where your child’s stats fall. No one else provided this information. Although it is out there, in articles such as the one in the original post, as stated, many simply don’t understand it. I’m not sure why more guidance offices at local high schools aren’t explaining this in more detail.
I should also add that he emphasized that if you are looking for merit aid, your child’s stats should be well above the school’s averages for admitted students. If your child’s stats are similar to those of most admitted students, do not expect to be offered merit money. Schools generally offer money to those students whose stats will bring up their averages, therefore making the student a more appealing candidate, one worth offering incentive to.
^^^Normally for merit aid stats should be in the top 25% of admitted students. For major merit, top 10% of admitted students.
A couple of years ago a student posted in the Boston University forum “I was just accepted off the waitlist. When will I hear if I received the Trustees (full tuition merit) Scholarship?” Uh, never.
Another misconception many students have is that all schools are created equal when it comes to merit aid. Here on CC there is a wealth of information on merit aid/scholarships but it takes work to find the generous schools that line up with a given student’s stats.
The article was a good one. I will say that I encourage all parents and students I talk to to get the FAFSA completed. While the purpose of filling out the FAFSA is to determine your eligiblity for grants and subsidized student loans the student aid report can be used by universities in a variety of ways and each university will use it differently. A mistake many make is assuming that EFC is going to be close to what they may reasonably expect to pay. The second is too assume that it will not affect their aid from the university. If a student has a $20k EFC they will likely not get much beyond any merit scholarships they are eligible for and are awarded at their instate public colleges. However, at private colleges or in some cases OOS publics whose COA is $40-70k per year they may find that there is need based money for them. Not from the government but from the school. It may not cover their need but it may lower the gap with the instate school. Then again it may not. The NPC will help many people but not all.
When my Ds were choosing colleges we saw a vast difference in aid from the various schools. Some were strictly need based, some were strictly merit based and some were need based with a merit component. There were schools we expected would be cheaper than they were and others that surprised us by ending up affordable. They had both OOS and instate publics that met our need and those who didn’t come close. The same with private schools. We are self employed so we really didn’t take much stock in the NPC results.
I think the key is to file the FAFSA, know what you want to spend and give yourself options. I guess a final opinion is don’t feel entitled. There are few people who in the end won’t have to make some compromises. For some those compromises might be CC or a local 4 year university, for others it might choosing the IS flagship over the private university. I know there are many students who have worked VERY hard and have the HS grades etc. to achieve great things at a top university, however, if you can’t afford it you can’t afford it. The attributes that made your child successful in HS will make them successful where they end up attending.
I’m not sure if this is a misconception or not. My experience was that most schools do not stack need based aid and merit aid. If a student qualifies for need based aid and then is offered merit aid, the merit aid drastically reduces or eliminates the need based aid.
Yes, when we first started out we did not realize this initially. It was a bit of a disappointment to learn this. Fortunately, we did learn prior to application season in order to take that into account.
That said we did encounter two interesting cases:
- Soka - was an exception and stacked need and merit (at least back when my D applied, don’t know if they still do)
- Scripps (where my D ended up at) did NOT stack need and merit, however, for the JES recipients they used the FAFSA EFC to meet need (and without loans) instead of the CSS Profile so for us it added to the overall value of the merit scholarship–especially these last two years with 2 in college!
“I’m not sure if this is a misconception or not. My experience was that most schools do not stack need based aid and merit aid. If a student qualifies for need based aid and then is offered merit aid, the merit aid drastically reduces or eliminates the need based aid.”
The only way I can imagine that someone would know that FA was being reduced because of scholarships was if they ran an NPC that did not consider potential merit awards and the actual grant amount given by the university FA package was lower than that which was predicted by the NPC. For that reason I don’t really look at it as stacking rather merely the universities methods for computing the entire FA package. While scholarships are set amounts university grants are dependent on other factors. Few schools offer FA packages that lower the COA to below the EFC. It was our experience that FA was in some ways as unpredictable as Admissions. Every school has their methods and few are completely transparent about them. I doubt many universities would tell you they stack awards. For some schools the scholarships might make it more likely that you are paying closer to your EFC or even eliminate some loans in the FA package.
There are advantages to scholarships over FA. For one scholarships are not dependent on EFC. Financial situations and FA availability can change. So long as a students meets the requirements to keep the scholarship that will not.
I can think of 3 ways…
- You get your FA package, then later get a scholarship and your revised package simply replaces some grant with the scholarship. (i.e. no net gain…FA is replaced)
- You get your FA package and it explicitly states what your EFC is and states how your need (at a meets need school) is being met (and there is the scholarship as meeting some of that need, not helping you meet your EFC)
- The school states this on their website or admissions talks (which is how we first learned about this…)
We’ve experienced all 3…
If a student gets a merit award, the financial need changes. If a student needed $30k to be able to attend, and the school awarded $30k, but then the student got $15k in merit either from the school or from an outside source, the need is no longer $30k but $15k. Why would the school be expected to still award $30k in need when the need is now $15k? It’s not that they don’t stack the need and merit, but that the need component has changed.
I am not sure some of the postings are right. Just having a good GPA and test scores does not mean some schools will open their purses. Ivy Leagues tend to give nothing unless there is a demonstrated need.
Why file a FAFSA or CSS P in that case ?