<p>Last year, most of the colleges/Universities D applied to required the FAFSA if you were applying for any kind of aid -- merit or otherwise. Even though all the online calculators showed that it was a waste of time for us, I still went through the hoops to fill them out. If all the additional scholarships (department-based and other outside scholarships) are all merit based, do I really have to waste the time to fill out the FAFSA again this year?</p>
<p>You are going to have to ask the school financial aid office and whoever controls the outside scholarships. You may luck out and find that none of them require FAFSA forms if they are entirely merit-based, or you may find out that one or more of them does require you to fill them out every year.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation and did not have to file FAFSA or Profile for my daughter's second or third year. Her merit money continued to roll in with no forms needed. Now that I am going to have two kids in college next year, I get to do both forms again for each of them.</p>
<p>At DS's school, we were not required to file the FAFSA (or Profile) for renewal of MERIT aid (this change happened after his soph year...we DID have to complete them for the first two years). BUT to get a Stafford loan (which we require our kids to take...it's their investment in their college experience), you DO have to complete the FAFSA. We did this each year. DD's school requires the FAFSA annually for any kind of aid. I am grateful that we don't ever have to do a Profile again!!!! Doing a renewal FAFSA is not hard at all. All of the demographic information is spilled onto the form and you have to proof that, and then add the numbers from 2007. Honestly, compared to the initial one, it's a piece of cake.</p>
<p>We also didn't qualify for need-based aid. However, we will be filing the documentation for her 2nd year as a hedge against something happening - job loss, parental illness, whatever. If such an event happens, we figure it'll be hard enough dealing with it on its own, without then having to scramble and fill out all these forms. We'll just be able to call the FA office and say, "Our situation has changed from this to that."</p>