According to FAFSA, our EFC is more than $100k.
Looking to figure out if Is there any benefit in applying to FA ?
also, given where our EFC is, what sort of benefit we get by submitting the FAFSA ?
Your child can borrow federal loans, and you can borrow Parent PLUS loans, if you file a FASFA. If you don’t need loans, there may not be a reason to file the FAFSA. However, some schools require that you file the FAFSA to be considered for merit awards … having a high EFC won’t necessarily exclude your child from getting a merit award, but if you have to file if it’s their merit aid policy.
Some schools and merit awards require you to fill out FAFSA and also the CSS Profile. If you don’t have FAFSA filled out for this year, if something changes next year that could be problematic.
Is your annual income on the $400,000 a year range and/or do you have significant assets?
If not there might be a mistake on your form
would college feel we are wasting their time (knowing we won’t be eligible for any need based aid ) by filing for financial aid ?
I am not sure why colleges need FAFSA for consideration of merit aid.
Colleges want to make sure that they preserve merit aid dollars if possible. So a kid is required to file a FAFSA. If the kid is shown to be eligible for a Pell grant, then the school can spend that much less of their merit aid money. Kid still gets full value of the merit $$$ but the school saves some by taking some of Uncle Sam’s $.
On edit: one of my kids doesn’t have to file ever (even with his full ride) and the other kid has to file each year (not quite full ride). Different universities.
Some public schools have it as a requirement as a way to qualify the student as eligible for public funds. The FAFSA app does the work of verifying the legal status through the FSA ID.
But it doesn’t matter why. If it is required, it is required.
FAFSA is dead simple to fill out, especially if you can use the IRS retrieval tool. (Although the CSS can drive you batty if your finances are complex.)
If a college offers merit aid and a FAFSA is required for consideration, then you are not wasting anyone’s time. Nobody at the school is going to think that. Also, as stated above, FAFSA allows your student to take out federal loans. Many well-to-do parents have their kids take out these loans as a matter of principle (ie, kiddo having some skin in the game).
Other parents, who have high income but lower assets, may recognize that they are a job loss, a market crash, or a medical catastrophe away from ruin. They fill out the FAFSA as preparation against unexpected financial disasters.
It really doesn’t matter. If they want FAFSA and you want merit, fill it out. College websites may detail these requirements but if they don’t, send an email and ask.
Our EFC was above $100k not necessarily because of income but because of savings. We filed FAFSA because we thought maybe we’d have our S19 take the Fed loan but that was just kind of a knee jerk reaction and we’ve decided we wouldn’t do that now. We have the funds and won’t have him take loans. S19 is our oldest and I just didn’t want to leave any stone unturned so we filed. He’s applied to almost all LACs, some which give merit. I called all of them and none of them needed FAFSA for merit. Why would they? FAFSA is for federal money. Merit is just based on academics not need.
All of his schools needed CSS for institutional need based aid. We knew that giving schools even more financial info than was on FAFSA would not help our case so it wasn’t going to help us get any need-based aid.
We won’t file for our D21.
For the reasons stated above - to make sure that all federal aid is used first and to make sure the student is entitled to federal aid (citizen, permanent resident). There are a lot of people in the $50-75k income range who figure they are not entitled to federal aid and don’t file the FAFSA. How is Duke to know if a student could qualify for federal aid if they don’t require everyone to file the FAFSA? If the student can qualify for a Pell grant or SEOG, the school can save its own money before awarding merit combined with need based aid.
Bottom line is you need to check by college. First, that they offer merit, then what actions they require.
The reason some schools require FAFSA for merit is so that they can target the endowed funds that specify that need be a component of awarding the scholarship to students who have need. They will target funds that don’t specify need to students who do not have need. Schools have to figure out how to spend the funds they have within the restrictions of the funds.
@twoinanddone I understand but the schools on S19’s list did not need FAFSA. If it helps anyone, the schools were Davidson, Kenyon, Grinnell and Vanderbilt. All have competitive merit and don’t require FAFSA. The rest of the schools on his list don’t give merit aid so they don’t need FAFSA for a family who will not receive govt assistance.
SOME schools require the FAFSA (and even Profile) for merit aid consideration. Others don’t.
You have to check each school.
My one kid went to Boston University (graduated 2007). At the time, he was awarded a solely merit award. No need component. At that time, the requirement was that the forms needed to be completed prior to the disbursement of the award. So…we did the forms.
Second kid went to Santa Clara. That school required the FAFSA and Profile freshman year only for consideration of all awards. In subsequent years, only the FAFSA was required.
I have no idea what the requirement is now.
Check each college to which your kid is applying!