When do we have to apply for financial aid? I already know the deadlines and such, but do we have to turn them in after the first college we apply to or just after we send in all online apps, for example? Or before all apps. But then, when it comes to early decision, what do we do then?
In addition, what is PROFILE?
<p>There is another forum on CC entitled "Financial Aid and Scholarships". The FAFSA form should be completed as soon as possible after Jan 1st. You need tax information for 2005 before you can do it. It can be done online (highly recommended for processing time) at <a href="http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/%5B/url%5D">http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/</a>. You can read about what is required before then, and you should get PIN's that are used to electronically sign the form. Your parents and yourself both need PIN's.</p>
<p>The PROFILE is not required by all colleges, typically only the higher ranked ones. It is a form that you fill out at <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a> and you send it to selected colleges in the same way that you send SAT/AP scores. It has additional info beyond the FAFSA. Do it around the same time that you do the FAFSA.</p>
<p>I personally do not know about how financial aid is determined for ED applicants. However, the standard advice is not to apply ED if you are also going to apply for financial aid. The basic process is that each college has a COA (Cost of Attendance) and each college applicant has a EFC (Estimated Family Contribution). The EFC is subtracted from the COA, and that gives the NEED. Financial aid officiers at the colleges will try to satisfy your NEED by giving you grants, loans, and work study. Lets say that the college has a COA of $45K per year, and that your EFC is $20K per year. That means that you have a $25K need. The need can be satisfied with either $20K in grants and $5K in loans per year -OR- $10K in grants and $15K in loans. By applying ED, you give up your ability to compare FA packages from different schools, and FA packages vary widely between schools, and also between different applicants.</p>
<p>There are two problems with the above utopia where all of your NEED is satisfied. 1) You may be left with unmet NEED. There is no guarantee that a college during RD will meet all of your need. 2) EFC's can be very high (and so NEED's can be very low). The people who get hurt the worse are families whose combined family income comes close to or exceed $100K per year. There are free EFC calculators at different places on the web (Collegeboard.com and CC).</p>
<p>thanx! u really articulated the answers to my problem. ;]
however, if i do apply for FAFSA with early decision, it is not going hinder my acceptance in any way, right? And, if i don't get into Cornell, i could still compare the FA from the colleges left over, right?
thanx again for your time!</p>
<p>Your ability to pay can always affect admission, but schools that do not consider how much of the actual tuition that you can pay are called need-blind. Most schools will do everything they can to discount the tuition price so that you can attend. The system is set up so that the wealthy pay full price, and the poor get huge grants. However, the problem is how they define "wealthy". </p>
<p>The EFC is based on your parents income, your income, your parents savings, and your savings. The rules for how all of this works are public, but I won't go into it here. However, an example might help. A family with the parents having a combined income of $75,000 with little savings and a non-working student with no savings will have an EFC of about $18K. At a private college, the COA is about $43K (tuition, room/board, books, misc.). This means that the NEED is $25K. It would not be really unusual for the applicant to get a $20K grant and $5K in loans. The problem is that when the family income exceeds $100K and heads towards $120K, the EFC gets very high and the NEED heads towards zero. The EFC of $18K was bad enough to pay anyway, and so the middle class is hit pretty hard.</p>
<p>When applying ED, it is important to know how much cash you have at risk. If your EFC is low, then the FA package from the ED college matters a lot. If you EFC is high, then you have very little money coming from the ED college anyway, and so you have less to risk. Your parents should go to one of the free EFC calculators on the web, and type in their financial numbers to give a rough idea of your situation. </p>
<p>If you aren't not accepted during ED, then nothing is binding.</p>