Dumb question, but do you apply for financial aid before or after you get accepted?

College Search & Selection
1

I know this is a really basic question, but neither one of my parents went to college in the US, so I have no clue. Also, would you need to decide if you’re living on or off campus at the same time? Since the costs would be higher if you’re on campus- would that affect the amount of aid you receive?

2

You apply before, using either the FAFSA or the CSS Profile or both, depending on the college. The financial aid section of the website for each college you are applying to will specify what you need and when it is due.
You will specify whether you are planning to live on campus or live at home and your financial aid award will be adjusted accordingly. If you change your plans, your financial aid award will also change.
You can use the Net Price Calculator on each college’s website to get an estimate.

3

If you apply to live on campus and get aid and then decide to live off campus the aid will be reduced. with your family income you will not get any need based aid.

4

Before. Which is a lot of work for freshman year. That way they can give you an aid package right around the time they accept you, and you have that info to make your decision.

5

@TomSrOfBoston is not correct. The answer is: It depends. It depends on how how your FA is structured. If you live at home & commute, that portion of the aid would undoubtedly be reduced. When D moved off campus, it did not affect her aid at all, but there wasn’t anything left in the award after tuition was covered, so it reallly did not matter to the school whether she was living on campus or off. I repeat. It depends. And, I do not know how Tom thinks he knows your family income or can predict whether you you get any aid.

6

@TomSrOfBoston probably should have said the COA will generally go down if a student moves off campus. For schools that meet need that would lead to FA going down.

7

My D is at a meets-full-need school and I called to ask if her FA will be reduced if she moves off campus, and they said no, so it may depend on the school.

8

@AboutTheSame From an earlier post by OP on a different thread…

9

Keep in mind that some schools require you to live on campus for at least 1-2 years unless you have extreme circumstances. I ended up writing some schools off my own list because they wanted me to live on campus for 3/4 years.