Regrading the question, “what are you willing to pay for your student?” does anyone know if putting too low an amount
could hurt your child’s chances of getting into a “need aware” school?
Put a realistic amount you can pay. We put something very close to our FAFSA EFC.
I’m not sure the question matters at all…as this info is not used in the formulas for determining need based aid. Those need aware schools will compute your need. To be honest, what you can pay really isn’t important. It’s what they determine you SHOULD pay that is.
My husband filled it out already and honestly put in too low an amount. I realized this after the fact. Now concerned the schools may look at this, and if my son were on the cusp of admittance, they may deny him because they’d think he wouldn’t accept because we aren’t willing to pay more. Make sense? Am I being crazy and reading into this too much?
I don’t know why they ask this but there was no relationship between what I put down and the outcome. A financial aid officer told me that if a list more, they’d probably provide less but it seemed a big disconnect to me.
Once more…the school will compute your contribution…and that is what will matter. The number the pay compute will be the one seen by the admissions folks at a need aware school.
Thank you for your responses.
FWIW I’ve always wondered why they ask this…and kind of wondered the same thing.