We don’t qualify for needs based aid. We filled out FAFSA last year. My daughter is already a freshman at Temple on a nice merit scholarship. Due to some free lance gigs (I work full time, have a part time job too and freelance on the side, last year I worked 3 Jobs) I can absolutely tell you hands down that we won’t be qualifying for anything needs based, based off of either our 2017 or 2018 tax returns. Can I skip the FAFSA completely? We’re not doing loans either.
I skipped it, knowing we’d get no money.
Very tempted to do that. I emailed them just to make sure it wouldn’t jeopardize her merit money.
Yes, my daughter didn’t receive any merit from Temple, but she received merit from 6 other schools – some of them very significant – and we didn’t submit FAFSA for any of them. Only one school of those 6 asked that we complete FAFSA after she was admitted.
Some of the schools my daughter applied to in 2017 required FAFSA to even be considered for merit so we went ahead and completed it. But now that she is in school I can’t justify sharing that much financial information with God knows who if it’s not going to benefit us in any way. I am curious what Temple says in response to my email.
My daughter’s high school guidance counselor told us that a lot of people in our town did not submit FAFSA and that that might come across as “lack of interest” by the colleges. I called my daughter’s 3 top schools before she applied, and they all laughed at that suggestion.
I was paranoid about that too but that was last year when we were applying. Now that she is already a student it seems ridiculous. I read and reread the conditions of her scholarship and it is all dependent on her maintaining full time status and a certain GPA. Nowhere does it say ‘Oh, and give us every detail of your most private financial info just for funzies’.
@JerseyMom2022 Did you hear back from Temple? Same situation here, but I did fill out the FAFSA for my current student, but was considering if that was really necessary.
Yep! They replied. It’s not a condition for existing students and isn’t required for merit aid. I have heard horror stories of parent losing a job or becoming disabled or dying and not having submitted it they are suddenly screwed. But in our particular situation it serves zero purpose for us to keep filling it out every year. We have health, disability and life insurance and 529 plans. The odds of anything happening to make us suddenly eligible for federal aid are just quite remote.