We just got back from a meeting with the college and career counselor. We asked about the FAFSA form and were told that we should fill it in b/c of emergency possibilities. We know we will not be qualified for anything (over 250,000) but were told that didn’t matter. We try to cut down on as much info being out there the better with our personal information if it isn’t needed. Will it hinder merit aid in any way if we don’t fill it out? The counselor just kept saying that our school was filled with people who didn’t “need it” but they always do and should. Any takes on that? Do they really need to verify that we don’t need financial aid before they will give merit aid as she said? thanks and apologies if this is answered somewhere else…couldn’t find it.
Some schools require that you file a FAFSA for merit aid (the numbers aren’t used to determine the merit in any way… they just require you file). Some schools require you apply for financial aid in your first year to get it later on (so, if family circumstances change significantly for some unforeseen reason and you didn’t apply for FA in your child’s freshman year at a school that has this policy… you may not be able to get FA later, regardless of the circumstances).
It’s safer to file the FAFSA than not. You have nothing to lose by filing.
thanks for the feedback. It just seemed so car salesman type of thing…and spooked us a little. Who has access to this information? btw, LOVE all the feedback and help you give on here!
except privacy
Although you may not qualify for any need-based aid based upon the results of the FAFSA, filing it gives you the opportunity, although you don’t need to take it, of having your student take the $5,500 loan freshman year. And even if you don’t decide they need it at the start of freshman year, I believe you have the ability to take it out up until the end of freshman year.
I find it incredibly annoying to have to complete each year. There’s no way we qualify for aid - however D’s school wants proof that she doesn’t qualify for a Pell Grant in order to receive her merit money. Understandable - why shouldn’t the school get that federal aid if eligible?
If I’m not mistaken, just the FAFSA folks and financial aid office at the school you send the FAFSA to. Specific financial information isn’t usually communicated between Admissions and Financial Aid personnel, and certainly not anyone else.
Courtney pretty much summed it up.
You could wait and see if the schools you are looking at require it for merit aid. If not, and you’re willing to take chances at losing potential FA in the way of loans or in future years (or you’ve verified it won’t matter) you could skip it.
Who has access to the information? The federal government (it’s a federal application) and all the colleges you list on the application.
thanks all…I was reading through my posts and thought it might come off that we may be paranoid conspirators about what people know. However, we are of the cloth that less information you know about me is best…esp gov’t institutions. I was reading up online and probably will fill it out.
At least 2 schools give a bonus to every student who files fafsa. One is Stetson, the other I don’t remember.
Do what you feel is right. My daughter does go to a school that requires fafsa for merit because they figure why give in house money when there is government money to be had.
My D also applied to a school that offered money if she filed early with FAFSA.
^^It really is an easy $1000 per year, but I can see where some students won’t want to file. I really doubt that the Obamas will file even though he is a big proponent of everyone filing.
We filed the first 2 years for our oldest, but decided that since a Stafford would be our only aid, we would not file it for any of the others. We did, however, get it in writing from each of the schools that their merit money was not dependent on filing the FAFSA.
Follow-on question: If we filed FAFSA for our D’s freshman year, and received merit aid from the school, how do we tell if the two were tied together? If they were, are we required to re-file every year? We haven’t yet for this year, since she’s fully funded, would only be eligible for student loans, and we can cover that amount if it becomes necessary.
You ask the school.
If her aid is on her portal, and there are no ‘to do’ items on it, you’re probably good. My daughter at the school school that requires the FAFSA for merit has a check list of things to do and that will be one of them. Others are things like complete the master promissory note, write a thank you letter if you receive an alum scholarship. The other daughter’s school, which doesn’t require it but really likes it, didn’t post any of her merit, so I called and they said they were waiting to post it all at once, and where was the FAFSA? I could have said I wasn’t filing one, but it is easy enough to file.
They basically have all the important stuff like DOB, SSN, address to commit fraud. You are telling them how much you have in assets, but not the account numbers. I’m very protective of this information (you won’t find my SSN in my dentist’s file) but I figure it is already there in the school file.
Some merit money may be coming from endowed funds where the donor of the money may have stipulated that the recipient must be a U.s. Citizen/permanent resident in order to receive those funds. The FAFSA helps to sessile sort this piece out. There are state scholarships that are not tied to financial need; filing the FAFSA Ali’s provide proof of your state residency and your eligibility for these funds.
Some schools retire the FAFSA because it does help with their data collection and reports to the federal govt that trickle down and help you make informed decisions (common data set, IPEDs reports, etc.).
One of the biggest challenges is that there are students who may be eligible for federal & state aid and scholarships that they are not getting because they are not filing the FAFSA.
We have never filled out the FAFSA. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will not qualify for financial aid other than an unsubsidized loan, which we don’t want. My daughter’s school does not require that we complete FAFSA in order to get her merit scholarship. Like you, we did not want to provide our private financial information if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, and in our case it was not.