Don’t you have to apply for financial aid if your child wants to take the federal loan? We know we will be full pay with an EFC higher than any college’s total cost but we will apply for aid just in case we want S19 to take the loan.
I had a similar dilemma last year when S18 was applying. Our FAFSA EFC was 55k for first year but we knew it would go to 70k+ for subsequent years. I wondered if that one time 15k was worth it. In the end we did apply for aid. This made him eligible for work study. And I think some schools require FA app for student to be eligible for certain loans or grants (someone correct me if I’m wrong). I figured that 15k is not enough money to concern a school. If your D gets waitlisted or deferred ED, then you could notify FA officer that your financial picture has changed and you’d like to withdraw your aid request.
Our results were mixed. Denied, waitlisted, and accepted from 3 schools each. But talking with our HS college counselor, I am certain it had nothing to do with the aid app.
Bucknell is one of main offenders on my local “why are we paying so much” thread. Take this FWIW because I heard it from clearly disgruntled parents, but mom & dad believe Bucknell uses ED to target full pay applicants. They did not allow second kid to apply anywhere ED.
Again, that is one family’s opinion. Kid seemed to enjoy her time there and landed a job shortly after graduation.
Opinions are just opinions, of course. Sometimes with no basis at all.
“I figured that 15k is not enough money to concern a school.”
^ THIS. The NPC only showed 15k eligibility. That’s nowhere near the level they’re afraid of. It’s not enough for OP to fret over. You’re practically full pay. If they do give 15k, they get to put a tick in the nice guy box, maintain that “52%,” without shelling out 65k for some needier kid. Times 4 years.
You’d want to go back a d see if that 15k already packaged loans, how much is free money.
You do need to file a FAFSA to get a student loan or federal work study, but you can do that long after the student has been accepted, even after the student starts as a freshman.
Great feedback. Thank you so much everyone.
@citymama9 sent you PM but my friend chose to not apply for financial aid for her son applying ED last year. A paid counselor said it would be a boost and it worked. Who knows whether he would have gotten in anyway, but if I could manage that for my d I would.
Nobody has any idea if it “worked.” Families that have a small amount of need, as stated upthread, are not what colleges lose sleep about. Indeed, I’d argue that if a student has high need – as in a $0 to $10k EFC, that applicant, if otherwise qualified, has a better chance during ED than during RD. By the time they get to the RD round, they have to ration the FA.
This whole idea – ability to pay full freight, but having an EFC that’s $10k-$15k less than full freight and stressing about whether to apply for FA – is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too. You want a risk-free situation in which your daughter is accepted AND gets the aid.
If you can afford full freight, you do not have need. Period. The Fafsa EFC is not a forensic accounting investigation. It’s an estimate. And it’s a formula. Sometimes the formula works in your favor, sometimes it does not. But YOU know that you have the full-pay funds. Therefore, you do not have need. The FA funds are for people who truly have NEED, who literally do not have the dollars to pay. OP, think about that when you make your decision. By forgoing the Fafsa submission, not only might you be helping your own daughter (arguably, but maybe), but you might also be helping a student who truly has need.
If your need is in the vicinity of 15k and the school is need aware/meets full need, applying for aid could actually help, because you get them to the “meets full need” classification at a very low cost. Win-win.
@brantly
Exactly why I said “who knows” in my very next sentence. We do not know. There is no way to know. But the story of my friend remains.
FA funds are for whomever the college wishes. Applying for financial aid should be a personal choice and no one should feel that they are taking from less fortunate families. The colleges want a spectrum of students to get aid. It’s okay to apply for aid if you have low need.
@brantly Just because we have money to pay doesn’t mean that the money couldn’t be used for something else. You don’t know our circumstances. I’ll try not to get too offended since you don’t know us.
It sure sounds like you’re thinking too much. I can’t imagine if your EFC suggests you are ~15k in need it will impact a potential acceptance in a meaningful way. However, there’s a good chance the aid you might get offered will be limited to loans or work study. Our EFC for each of our twins is ~55k, and the Franklin & Marshall offer for the daughter who applied there didn’t include any grant money. Yes, we could have paid full price, but I’m 56 and can’t justify doing so. Both of ours chose less selective schools with good merit, and we all feel good about their situations.
@citymama9 I’m sorry this is getting agonizing. For all of us whose kids apply, there’s a point at which we
have to trust. We trust that our kids are pointed in the right direction and that the colleges they apply to will appreciate them. But all our kids can do is their best. We never know if adcoms will be weighing many great kids from our areas or have issues with too many kids applying for their majors or take that tuba player instead of ours. We never know.
You don’t have high need, not enough for them to arbitrarily exclude your daughter. And not enough to suffer with this decision. If it were my child, I’d apply for the aid because the reality is it will help your family. It’s ok. And I’d understand that the college admissions decision is beyond our control for many reasons. We hope and we trust. But the college decides based on a lot of factors.
Not applying for aid doesn’t add points. Applying for aid doesn’t subtract. Your daughter’s app will still stand on its own merits. All the time, we hear CC stories of kids with high need getting into need aware colleges. Some colleges only use need sensitivity as funds run out (not ‘aware’ at all until that point.) Some only use it in certain borderline decisions. You really can’t second guess this, only do what’s best for your family. It’s ok.
My kids got FA and I didn’t even realize til a few years later that the college is need aware.
Best wishes.
I work in higher ed and I believe that ED full freight gives an advantage. Just my two cents, but if there are two kids who are identical on paper, the one w/o need will have the edge.
Re not applying for aid this year, but applying for sophomore year:
Some places will not allow a student to apply for aid in later years if they didn’t apply as freshmen applicants - even when there has been a hideous family financial reversal. So have a chat with the financial aid office and verify.
“I work in higher ed and I believe that ED full freight gives an advantage. Just my two cents, but if there are two kids who are identical on paper, the one w/o need will have the edge.”
I’m guessing this varies by college, but it’s difficult to suspend disbelief enough to think this wouldn’t be true. Heck, even the Harvard Asian discrimination lawsuit documents are showing us that contrary to all their claims about admissions being “need blind”, financial aid is a part of the final admission consideration at Harvard. After the admissions committee makes the initial recommendation of who to admit, the entire list of the students who receive the recommendation to admit (called the Lop List) is given to the Dean and the Director of Admissions so that they can “lop” the list down to the number of spaces available and make sure the overall composition of the incoming class meets the desired institutional needs. The information the Dean and Director of Admissions are given on the Lop List is simply 5 data points: name, lineage, ethnicity, athlete and financial aid needed. Based on those 5 items, the Dean and DAdmissions “shapes” and pares the incoming class down. Let’s think about this for a minute - if a school is need blind and financial aid needed isn’t part of the admissions decision, why exactly would financial aid be one of only 5 data points on the list used to make final admissions decisions? And if it’s this important a consideration at Harvard, which has one of the largest endowments and is known for being generous with financial aid, why would we not believe this is part of the consideration at other colleges with smaller endowments and less generous financial aid?
We often remind potential applicants to “show” not tell. Well, colleges may be telling us financial aid isn’t considered, but they’re showing us something very different. Up to you to decide if you want to trust what they’re telling or what they’re showing.
I agree that if you have very little need, applying for FA can be a plus.
So, in 56 posts, the CC community has come to the conclusion that this is either a positive, negative or neutral. Good job everyone =D>
Consensus is overrated. 
@citymama9 I had the same question as @Eeyore123 - what was the breakdown of grants/loans/work study for the NPC? If it’s 15K in grant money, then it makes sense to weigh the pros and cons. If it’s mostly loans, then maybe not. Best of luck with your decision!