<p>This may be the dumbest question you will ever read on these boards, but oh well....all of this is extremely new to our family and we are learning as we go. We have a fairly large family. MY dd, our oldest, will be attending college this fall. We are one of those families that are not by any means wealthy, yet when I plugged in a few numbers for the fafsa I quickly realized that we will not qualify for any need-based aid....according to their figures we are capable of paying for the most expensive school she has applied to....I wish this were the case, but it simply would be too much of a hardship. Anyway, do we still need to fill out the fafsa and turn it in to the schools that she is applying/accepted to? We are hoping for some healthy merit aid.</p>
<p>It's really not dumb. I was asking the same question recently. </p>
<p>People will say you should apply anyways just in case you may be eligible for government loans or whatever. But no, you don't have to submit a FAFSA.</p>
<p>Also, since you have other kids, it may be wise to have FAFSA on file for your oldest as some schools penalize kids who do not file for aid and fill out the forms their first year and then apply for aid later. With two or more kids in college at the same time, you might qualify for aid. You don't want this to be a sticky point when the time comes. You can use the practice and familiarize yourself with form if you start now, and may see some things that could be moved around in the future to maximize aid eligibility.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate the info. One other related question: If it matters how many kids you have in college on the FAFSA, then why do they not take into account whether you are paying tuition for kids in K-12? Is it because they assume that if money were an issue one would be sending their kids to public schools?</p>
<p>i think there's a question on the CSS profile that asks how much you're paying for children's tuiton ..i'm guessing that includes k-12</p>