I’m asking a broad question and maybe it can’t be answered easily. Maybe I actually need to call each college/university for the answer, but here goes. My S15 received a scholarship that did not require us to file the FAFSA, so we have not done it to date. I am a stay at home mom, so only my husband works and his salary is around $160,000. I have figured that we probably wouldn’t get much by way of need-aid (because out out of pocket for S15 is pretty low) and so my D17 has been marking her common app to say that we are not applying for need-based aid. Instead she is chasing merit at several universities.
Does anyone know how common it is that if a student receives a full-ride or full-tuition scholarship, they still have to file the FAFSA? Is there a generalized way that colleges handle this or is it just up to each one?
I have no idea how common or not it is, but from previous answers on this forum, it seems that it is not unheard of to require a FAFSA to be submitted. I think you’ll need to ask each school. Maybe someone here can answer whether you can just wait until after you’ve received an award (at a school your D plans to attend).
You should run the NPC’s to be sure you won’t receive aid. Since you’ll have 2 in college at the same time, it’s definitely possible.
I don’t think it’s very common but you can still mark no for applying for aid. The school will tell you if you need to file. I agree with running the NPCs to see if maybe some FA would be available.
You can always file the FAFSA if required, or even if you decide you want the Stafford loans. The check mark for ‘not applying for financial aid’ really only applies to aid given by the school itself. The school can’t prevent you from later applying for federal or state aid, filing fafsa for a scholarship or even for filing for school aid if circumstances change (they may tell you ‘no’ but will accept the application/appeal).
Thank you! This is helpful. While driving away from my house after posting this I remembered that we did for some reason fill out the FAFSA in early 2015. I think it said our EFC would be ~29,000. Based on that, we told our kid that she needed to get scholarships or she would need to stay at home and commute to school because with five kids total, we probably can’t pull that much out of the hat. So, I’d say she’s pretty motivated. We’ll see what happens!
On the FAFSA, you won’t list how much you are paying out of pocket for your S, just that there are two in college. If your EFC in 2015 was $29,000 with one in college, I think it will be more like $18,000 (per child) now. Doesn’t mean that the schools your D is applying to will meet your full need and bring the cost down to that level; but the FAFSA form really isn’t that bad. I’d recommend filling it out.