<p>I am currently a junior in high school and hope to apply to competitve schools like stanford, ucla, uc davis. I am still confused about the CSS/Fafsa stuff.
Do i have to fill out both and send whatever the colleges requests?
Does filling out both get more Fin aid?
Thanks, im first child in college process so its very difficult</p>
<p>Here is how the financial aid situation works for colleges, for the most part. If you want aid or accessibility to government loans and for certain program, and sometimes even merit money, you have to fill out FAFSA. What that does is qualify you for federal, and most state funds. FAFSA gives you a number called the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) which qualifies you for the PELL grant if that number is low enough, and might give you some loan subsidies. You are generally allowed to borrow up to $5500 a year on your own without a credit check. That is all the EFC guarantees you. The EFC is heavily dependent on income numbers. Primary home equity, non custodial parent’s financials, and siblings bank accounts, qualified plan funds like 401K are not included in the assets considered. FAFSA cannot be filled out until Jan 1 of the year before the school year starts if you are starting in the fall. It is based on the income numbers for the year ending the 12/31 the day before that New Year Day, so many times families have to send in an estimated one or get taxes done quickly and fill in the FAFSA as soon as possible, before the school’s deadline.</p>
<p>Most schools that use FAFSA only for financial aid, do not meet 100% need for their students and do not guarantee to do so. They may meet the need for the kids they most want but simply gap the rest. Most schools are need blind to need. They just don’t meet it.</p>
<p>There are schools that make an effort to meet 100% of need and some that guarantee to do so. Those schools tend to want more information, and they use a different definition of need than the FAFSA EFC. They compute their own figure for their own funds that they are giving out. You still need to fill out the FAFSA for these schools as they often will integrate their packages with the government aid, and they want the vetting that FAFSA provides. But they will often take into account other things such as home equity values, Non custodial parent financials and a number of other things. So their Figure for what they think your family should pay is not necessarily equal or even close to the EFC in many cases. Some of such schools are also not need blind in admissions. They don’t want to accept kids that they cannot provide a decent amount of aid for, so they just turn them down. There are not many schools that are both need blind in admissions and meet 100% of need, and also do not include loans or cap them in their packages.</p>
<p>I suggest you play around with some EFC estimators which will give you some idea what your family is expected to pay by federal standards. Usually that number is going to be lower, sometimes a lot lower than what PROFILE will calculate. That gives you a good starting point as to what might be expected of your family.</p>
<p>If you are a Californean, there is a state system of financial aid for the UCs and Cal States that you should familarize yourself with. You should also pick up a basic book on the financial aid process, and read the websites of the colleges that interest you to start getting familiar with the jargon and the way things work with those schools. You also need to read up on the Blue and Gold, Cal Grants and other California programs.</p>
<p>I answered this in another thread where you posted the same question, but it was an old one that you had resurrected.</p>