I’m wondering if we should or need to complete FAFSA this year. We did it last year for the first time for our current college freshman son. He is attending a college that gave him full tuition merit at his school for 4 years (3.0 GPA minimum requirement). I don’t see a reason to complete FAFSA; am I off based about this? I realize that grades are not final until the end of the semester, but our son assures us that his GPA will be above 3.0 minimum so losing his merit money is not an issue.
We also have a HS junior daughter so I know we need to complete FAFSA next year. Do we complete 2 FAFSA forms - one for our son and our daughter? Our EFC from last year was high, but with our daughter entering 2019, I’m wondering if the EFC will help her financial need with 2 kids in college even if he receives merit scholarship. If so, is there a benefit of completing FAFSA for my son this year or not necessary?
From what I understand, the EFC stays about the same for the family, but it is divided among the two or more children in college. It isn’t an even split, but the EFC for each child is reduced.
I would talk to your son’s college and ask them if he needs to complete the FAFSA. From my experience, most colleges require that a FAFSA be filed even if the student is receiving only merit based as opposed to need based aid. I could be wrong though, so you should give them a call.
I don’t know how your son’s scholarship will factor into the EFC calculation for your children - I’m sure someone will jump on board here to explain that to you.
The FAFSA EFC will be 50% if there are two siblings in college. The only reason it would be different for siblings is if they have different assets or income (the student) My #2 child’s was about $100 more than #1 because #2 had a little more in a savings account.
Yes, confirm with school whether they require the FAFSA or not. My daughter’s school did not, even with her scholarship. She is a sophomore and for two years we did not need to file. This year my son is applying to schools and needed to complete the FAFSA and CSS Profile. The FAFSA requires a parent login and student login. My daughter did not need a login and she is not completing. You can find some tables or Excel files that can help determine EFC with two in college. Also once your daughter knows what schools she in interested in, you can run the NPC and see what the finances look like (not all are 100% accurate, and can depend on circumstances). Keep in mind once your son graduates the financial picture will change again. We would run the NPC with two kids in college and also with one so that we could see what the last two years would look like with only one in college.
Definitely check with the school. My D has a full tuition merit scholarship which was guaranteed to renew every year as long as she maintained a 3.5 GPA, which she has done all along. However, the school required her to fill out the FAFSA every year anyway, or she would lose the scholarship!
Illogical, perhaps, but the school processes all financial aid and scholarships through the Financial Aid office, and since that was what they required, then that was what we did. (She’s a senior now, so no need to file FAFSA this year.)
^^I have one kid at a school that does require the FAFSA for all FA, and another at a school that does not. However, at the school that doesn’t require it, I need to let them know if I’m not filing it as they wait until it is file to start posting FA. That’s something I figured out when I was late to file one year because of the new FSA ID issues.