FAFSA requires list of colleges in order of preference!

Paying for College
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<p>Has anyone noticed that this year's FAFSA requires a student entering college for the first time to list their colleges in order of preference? It even includes up and down arrows so you can re-arrange the order after you enter the colleges you want the FAFSA sent to.</p>

<p>I'm worried about the repercussions this may have. I have read that many colleges are quite interested in how they are ranked on a student's FAFSA, and may use this information for admissions and financial aid decisions. Here's an article about that:</p>

<p>Colleges</a> use FAFSA information to reject students and potentially lower financial aid packages | Inside Higher Ed</p>

<p>For instance, if a student ranks a college lower on their list, that college may be less likely to admit the student, in the interest of having a higher percentage of admitted students actually attend.</p>

<p>And as for financial aid, if a student ranks a college at the top of their list in order of preference, that college may choose not to give the student as large a financial aid package, with the idea that the student will attend anyway because they want to so badly.</p>

<p>Aaargh! In the past, the FAFSA did not require the list to be in order of preference, so students were able to list the colleges in alphabetical order, effectively masking their preferences.</p>

<p>Now I'm struggling to decide what to advise my son to do! What if he is completely honest in his order, and his top college admits him but we can't afford it because the aid package they offer isn't big enough? What if he ranks them purposely out of order and doesn't end up being admitted to his top choices? </p>

<p>Only two of the colleges on his list have yet to make an admission decision, but they are the two most prestigious ones. They are his top choices, so it would be heartbreaking if he got in but we couldn't afford to send him.</p>

<p>Any ideas?</p>

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<p>Yes…do a search here for the at least four other threads that address the SAME topic.</p>

<p>Most kids change the order of preference for their colleges MULTIPLE times during the college application process. I can’t imagine the order means much (except I believe if you are applying to the UCs it does for instate students anyway).</p>

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<p>If you read the 68 pages instruction, it just asks you to list the schools you are most interested in attending but it does not say to put it in certain order. Nevertheless, in the second paragraph on p.64, it said:

For that reason, it does matter to change the order of schools accordingly.</p>

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<p>Perhaps he can put the schools that consider “level of applicant’s interest” as close to the top of the list as he can, within other constraints (e.g. the one described in post #3).</p>

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<p>Some instructions on how to fill out the FAFSA, not the official directions (though I have not read this year’s) have said to fill it out in order of preference. Why they would suggest that, I don’t know. There has been a stir about FAFSA order due to some articles that have hit the press lately. How prevalent the practice is in lookig at the order listed, I don’t know. I’ve read opinions saying that it helps putting certain schools first and others that say it hurts. I guess for those schools where admissions and financial aid work together or are one and the same, the order could count towards interest in the school and help in admissions, whereas if you put a school up top, financial aid supposedly gives you less money since they know you are hot to trot for them. That is the story that is related by some consulting firms, anyways.</p>

<p>How true is this? I don’t know. For those schools getting swamped with apps, I have seen first hand that it’s a grueling job getting through the apps, much less fooling around with this sort of thing. BUt with some of the smaller school, perhaps this does come into play. In the 20 years or so that I have noted admissions to colleges, I’ve never noted this connection on any scale. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there or that this is not a trend that is on the uptick. </p>

<p>If it’s something of great concern to you, take the trouble to refile the FAFSA after each school. Pain in the neck, but, peace of mind. FOr the most selective schools, I truly don’t believe for an instant it makes an iota of difference unless they are need aware for admissions. The need blind schools, which is the vast majority simply do not have the time or resources to spend this kind of time and attention on these things, and financial aid is dispensed by formula and fund availablility.</p>

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<p>There are a couple of State programs where it makes a difference how you list the schools on FAFSA. A student posted a while back that his State aid did not show up on the State U he planned to go to because he had listed a different State U first. It was an easy fix though. For some reason I am thinking it was New York, but I may be completely wrong.</p>

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<p>In most case, it does not matter in the order. The deadline for FAFSA is likely too late for most admission decision. The admission office can’t wait to process the application. It may make sense for sorting out the waitlist as they want to ensure the yield at the end of admission cycle.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all your replies. Thumper1, I must be using the wrong search terms, because I did look and didn’t come up with anything.</p>

<p>Billcsho, I didn’t know there were 68 pages of instruction! I’m filling out the online application, and for the question where you list the colleges you want the FAFSA sent to, the instructions are explicit:</p>

<p>“Please indicate your housing plans for each college, and make sure the colleges are in order of your preference. Your most preferred college should be at the top.”</p>

<p>I don’t know about it being too late for admissions decisions. Maybe. But maybe not. And probably not for financial aid. </p>

<p>UCBalumnus, that’s a good idea for admissions, but not necessarily for financial aid (definitely an important consideration for us, especially for USC!). That’s where the dilemma comes in.</p>

<p>cptofthehouse, I see what you’re saying about it being too much to mess with for colleges to spend their time on FAFSA rank. On the other hand, it seems like it would be fairly simple to just add FAFSA rank into the formula for determining admission or financial aid. I’m not sure refiling the FAFSA while listing one college each time is the answer. Would colleges assume that’s what you’re doing, or would they then think they’re the only one on your list, in which case it would be like being at the top of the list for financial aid. If they do indeed use FAFSA rank to help determine the aid package offered, it wouldn’t be best to make each college think they’re number one.</p>

<p>swimcatsmom, that is interesting. My son is, unfortunately, only interested in a state school in a different state! So the fact that he’s a non-resident trumps FAFSA order. He’s applied to our state school (Univ. of Illinois), and been admitted, but they don’t have a major anywhere close to his interest (film production), so he’s not actually interested in attending. He only applied because we “encouraged” him to apply!</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for everyone’s replies. I think we’ll probably just list them honestly in his order of preference and let the chips fall where they may. It’s too difficult to make a different decision when all the reasons are just conjecture. Still, the idea is frustrating and seems wrong on a basic level to think that colleges may use the FAFSA ranking in admissions or financial aid decisions.</p>

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<p>He and you should look carefully into the job and career prospects in the film industry. It is commonly brought up as an example of an industry where the entry level job is a series of unpaid internships (of sometimes questionable legality with respect to minimum wage laws). If that is of serious consideration, he may need parental support beyond college graduation in order to have a chance of getting through the unpaid internships into a paid job in the industry.</p>

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<p>The 68 pages instruction is listed on the sticky thread. Note that it was for 2013-2014, but there is no updated version. Again, FAFSA does not require you to put the schools in any order except for putting your in state public school on top for the requirement of several states.</p>

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<p>Anyone know the states that need the schools to be listed first? Unfortunately, I filed the FAFSA with the schools in alphabetical order, so our state flagship is not first on the list.</p>

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<p>MudderTurnedMom -</p>

<p>Recommending that students list them in order of interest does make a tiny bit of sense, because it is a way of encouraging the students to get all of their colleges/universities on the list in the first place, but I don’t see any good reason for FAFSA.ed.gov to waste electronic space to insist that this is necessary. Are you sure you are using the free website and not one of the for-profit sites instead?</p>

<p>mdmomfromli -</p>

<p>When I last checked the situation, here in MD it was only necessary to make certain that at least one MD institution (public or private) was somewhere in the list when the FAFSA was filed the first time. Adding a MD institution in an update would not get the information to the state offices.</p>

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<p>I’m not an expert on either of these two states…but I believe CA and NY might want to see their state choices listed in order.</p>

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<p>Billcsho, I don’t know if or when they’ll update the 68-page instructions that were written for 2013-14, but the current year online instructions very specifically say to put the schools in order of preference. This is exactly what is written about this question, directly from the FAFSA online form:</p>

<p>“Please indicate your housing plans for each college, and make sure the colleges are in order of your preference. Your most preferred college should be at the top.”</p>

<p>*oh, never mind. See the below post.</p>

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<p>Oh, goodness, HappyMomOf1!! I think you’re right! I assumed I was using the free government site, but it looks like maybe I’ve been taken in. When I just now checked, it says:</p>

<p>“A professional FAFSA preparation and filing service. Not affiliated with the Department of Education.”</p>

<p>I was totally fooled. The address is “fafsa-application” dot com, which sounded like the real site to me.</p>

<p>Thank you so much!!!</p>

<p>This may make all the difference in the whole “order of preference” also. Again, thank you!</p>

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<p>Happymom, what happens if a MD resident fills out a FAFSA w/o a MD school in the mix. Say that is the high, high reach list with all of the private schools, the ivies and full need met schools on the list. Then the FAFSA is resubmitted with the rest of the schools including all of the in state publics and other local schools. Would that exclude the student from state grants/loans/programs/aid? Can that be rectified if unintentionally done? </p>

<p>I had no idea until recently that the FAFSA order had to have state schools up top in a number of situatons, nor did a scenario like that in your state was the case. I’d read about the CA schools last year that needed to be list first.</p>

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<p>If California does, it sure does not make it easy to find that on its web site:
[California</a> Student Aid Commission - Application Process](<a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/doc.asp?id=48]California”>How to Apply - California Student Aid Commission)</p>

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<p>Can a person just submit FAFSA with one reach name, then resubmit again, then again? And then maybe list a top match with some safeties and submit? and then list another top match with some safeties and submit?</p>

<p>You’re not req’d to fill up every spot right? so, make many submittals.</p>

<p>Why not submit USC all by itself?</p>

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<p>You can submit one school at a time if it will make you feel better. But you have to wait between submissions for the FAFSA to be processed before you go and delete and add another school. It can take several days for the FAFSA to be processed.</p>

<p>If a student applies to 10 colleges, and you feel the need to send separately, it could take you between 20 and 30 days to do them all. </p>

<p>And if you are doing with estimates…you will have to repeat the whole process to update with 2013 tax info.</p>

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<p>Of course, that does not prevent someone doing multiple FAFSAs from tactically arranging the schools in batches based on whether they consider “level of applicant’s interest” or are thought to do preferential packaging of financial aid.</p>