<p>Thank you so much kategrizz. I have been trying to avoid using last year’s info if possible because last year there was a one-off event that will pretty much render the data useless as a surrogate for this year. But at the rate I’m going, I may have to go that route.</p>
<p>This coming fall will be the first time we will have two in college. Probably that means 2 x 0 will still equal zero but if there is any chance that it does matter as far as aid goes, I want to know what a real award would look like with accurate data. My son is picking a college this spring and it would be good to know what the actual costs would be</p>
<p>But in subsequent years, absolutely I’d take a page right out of your book. </p>
<p>We will have 2 in college next year too! (And the older D is on track to graduate Spring 2015 - so just the one year!) I’m afraid of the same result… but one can always hold out hope, right?</p>
<p>CSS done! Guess I got motivated! We are self-employed too so we always use last years taxes and amend later. Son is graduating college this year but headed to graduate school (maybe, fingers crossed?!) so does he still count cause we might be paying for that too…</p>
<p>If I have already filed the FAFSA for 10 schools, received the email they got it, etc, then I can go back in & delete those 10 schools & add the 2 non-audition schools & submit again? It doesn’t then discard or not consider the first one?</p>
<p>Question about deleting and adding a school. When you say you received an e-mail that the school received the FAFSA, was the e-mail from the school or FAFSA . Next, if you delete the school, but you will be updating the info when your 2013 taxes are filed, will the deleted school receive the updated information?</p>
<p>Or you can just hope that by the time you’d actually have finished your taxes, you’d have one or two schools in the bag that would trump others (or rejections) that would make it easier to decide which schools deserve updates and which can just go. Most likely this will just sort itself out.</p>
<p>Thank you GSOMTMom and Halflokum. I have left son’s “safeties” off the list because he has his first acceptance to an audition based program. We did receive confirmation from FAFSA that the form had been “processed”. Does that mean the schools received the information? Thank you again for answering my questions. I’m sure I could wade through the FAFSA instructions, but I feel more confident hearing information from those “who have gone before”.</p>
<p>It does seem that “processed” means that the schools have the information. I checked statuses for the schools that update financial aid information and they’re there, so you’re good to go! </p>
<p>I actually just logged in to see if my son’s had processed (it hasn’t yet but I just submitted it yesterday). It says: “Once your application is processed, the colleges you entered will have access to your information and their financial aid offices will determine your student aid eligibility.”</p>
<p>I’m not sure that having “access to your information” necessarily means that a college has looked at it or done anything with it yet. I’d not be in a rush to delete a school that is of potential interest. But I confess I don’t actually know how any of it works. I needed to submit for 11 schools so I just left off our state university because if my son goes there, I’ll be buying all of you a round of drinks.</p>
<p>HAAAA, halflokum! One of the schools hadn’t updated the information and I sent an email asking about it. I was told that they will download the information February 7th and I should see it then. If you find that the school doesn’t have the infomation, it can always be added later and sent off again.</p>
<p>I hope I’m not asking a question that has been asked many times - I didn’t have any luck finding the answer. Is there any connection between the FAFSA EFC and acceptance into a program. It occurred to me that if the decision comes down to two kids that are equal on every level but one has a high EFC and the other has a low EFC, wouldn’t it make sense to choose the student with the higher EFC? </p>
<p>A lot of colleges have a need-blind admissions policy, so they wouldn’t take an applicant’s financial aid situation into consideration. Of course, their policy regarding whether/how they meet admitted students’ financial need is another issue entirely! </p>
<p>I’m not an admissions rep but I’ve been to enough presentations about financial aid and read enough articles on it to believe that it is entirely possible, in fact likely, that all else being equal, the student with the higher EFC will be admitted over one with greater need. Even in the case of supposedly need blind admission in particular when it comes to a waitlist. But of course the key to all of this is how a school defines “all else being equal?” Money is something that can be assessed far more objectively. </p>
<p>I’m still confused about the FAFSA and financial aid packages. I filed the FAFSA weeks ago but have yet to receive an email from any school on the list saying that they had accessed it. We have another 6 schools beyond the original 10 that the need to give FAFSA access, but I don’t want to delete any of the original 10 without knowing if they have what they need. What to do? Email each of the original 10? This is our first college search.</p>