<p>As I understand it, filling out the FAFSA is required for eligibility for federal student loans. If the applicant ticks the box to indicate that he is NOT seeking FA, do the colleges look at the FAFSA data or even have access to the FAFSA data? </p>
<p>If you need only the Direct Loans, you could file the FAFSA after you been admitted to the school.</p>
<p>It is possible NOT to qualify for student loans or parent PLUS loans if you have merit money. You cannot get awards, merit or otherwise over and beyond your college’s official COA with few exceptions. You can stack PELL, for instance. But if you have a merit award that is a full ride, for instance, that covers COA of the school, you can’t borrow any money. The parent PLUS amounts are adjusted for any aid/awards the student gets up to COA.</p>
<p>You do not have to file FAFSA by school deadlines if you are not looking for financial aid from the school. For DIrect Loans, both parent and student, only the FAFSA is needed and the funds do not come from the schools’ coffers, but the money is funneled through the schools and they will adjust the max amounts based on other scholarship/aid that the student has received.</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>Why would filling out FAFSA reduce merit???</p>
<p>Anyway…if you’re that worried and ONLY want loans, don’t fill out FAFSA until after merit awards are announced. </p>
<p>You can even wait til your child STARTS college if all you want is a loan. You don’t have to meet the FA spring deadline if all you want is a loan. The deadline for loans is around May of the PAST school year…so a person could fill out FAFSA during March of the frosh year of college and get a loan for THAT school year that is nearly over.</p>
<p>It would only reduce merit aid in schools where merit is also tied to financial need, and if you don’t fill out the FAFSA you’re passing on that.</p>
<p>It actually is a pertinant question if expanded a bit. Filling out the FAFSA qualifies a student and family for federal aid, some of it guaranteed, is nearly always required to get financial aid from the school including federal aid that the school apportions, and is also often required by other programs, including some states’ aid, and even some merit awards. What you do with the FAFSA is up to you. If you just want access to the Direct loans, you don’t have to share the info with the school until after the whole scholarship process is done and over with. Your numbers on the FAFSA often do directly impact financial aid. </p>
<p>Usually, merit is a whole other thing. The way it often works, is that Admissions gives out the merit money and they do not usualy see your FAFSA results. That’s the Financial aid Department, and they usually work independently. Though Admissions likely knows that you are applying for fin aid, they often do not know if you even qualify and how much you get or qualify for. There are exceptions to this where Admissions and Fin Aid offices are one and the same or work together, but that is not usually the case. Admissions has enough going on with picking the best candidates for its cycle without taking in the fin aid issues. Most schools, the vast majority of them are need blind in admissions. </p>
<p>However, when it comes to awarding scholarships, the whole idea of doing so is to lure the best catches to the school and that is what Admissions does. Most discretional merit scholarships are awarded by the Admissions Office. However, because of federal, state and school rules about awards, when a financial aid recipient gets a scholarship, it can reduce financial ai, in fact in nearly always does. Because merit money has to be put towards need, according to federal and many state rules, as well as college rules. Since Admissions has a limited amount of merit money to give out, it may make no sense to give scholarships to those who simply get their finacial aid cut by that amount. You pretty much are not permitted to get financial aid if you have your need reduced by just about anything, including merit money–there has to be need to get financial aid.</p>
<p>I thought some schools, for example University of Michigan wouldn’t process scholarship offers without a FAFSA</p>
<p>^For some scholarships, University of Michigan does require FAFSA and Profile. See <a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Home/TypesofAid/ScholarshipsGrants/TypesofScholarships.aspx[quote]The”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Home/TypesofAid/ScholarshipsGrants/TypesofScholarships.aspx
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<p>That is true for some other schools as well but they will let the students know if that is the case.</p>