<p>Schools can set their own policies regarding what it takes for a financial aid file to be complete & ready to award. For example, they can require your tax info and/or do a complete verification even if you were not selected by the processor for verification. They can require their own finaid form. I assume they can require the Profile, as well (although I don’t know that 100%). While schools must follow federal guidelines in processing aid, they retain the flexibility to require that institutional policies be met.</p>
<p>P.S. As far as summer ACG goes, there was never anything in the regs that required schools to award students in the summer. Some schools choose not to award summer loans, even if a student would qualify. There IS language in the regs that requires awarding summer Pell if a student qualifies.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, according to the response I got from the federal ombudsman, schools were supposed to be awarding ACG for any term that the student qualified if they requested it (and were awarded Pell). It didn’t specify that there was a requirement to do so, but noted that there was no reason not to…I’m just speculating, but perhaps that’s one of the reasons why the ACG program was underutilized. Given the ACG award process, I can certainly understand why schools would prefer not to do summer awards unless requested though! </p>
<p>That’s so odd that they can withold federal aid based on not filing the Profile…it just makes no sense to me since that is not part of the federal aid process as all! What would justify putting people through all that extra time, trouble, and bit of expense just to take an unsub Stafford loan?</p>
<p>ACG was weird. Until last year, it couldn’t be awarded for less than 12 credits in a term, so schools often were not set up to do it in summer (since not that many students were full time in summer). Also, because the progression was based on number of weeks (not on the grade level progression), counting summers was a huge problem. If a student pushed, we’d award them for summer … we just did not look for folks to award for summer (and were not required to look for them). The change to grade level progression & less than full time awarding made it easier to award summer awards last summer. The program (and SMART) were really convoluted & really hard to run.</p>
<p>Again, I am not 100% sure about Profile being required to get unsub. However, since Profile would be a requirement to complete a file, I assume it would be required of all students in order for the aid file to be complete. This probably is not the case at all Profile schools (I think only FAFSA is required for unsub at D’s school, which does not award loans in f/a packages - although I’m not certain about that) - but I can see it being the case at some.</p>
<p>Just food for thought, I checked out the Princeton site. They have their own calculator, at the end they say we dont qualify for need based aid, but may qualify for loans and work study, so they suggest we still apply. Princeton does not require the CSS but does require Fafsa. Yale has their own application but doe not require the Fafsa. Wash U seems to be one of the few top schools that still offer supposedly “merit” based scholarships, so I need to do some more research, probably have to call them.</p>
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<p>Princeton also has its own financial aid application form. From what I have heard (I’ve never seen it), the questions are VERY similar to the ones on the Profile.</p>
<p>None of the schools that d is applying to require FAFSA or Profile for merit aid.</p>
<p>Re the requirement to file FAFSA and/or Profile for merit aid eligibility when a family knows they are ineligible for need-based aid, I encourage people to call the financial aid offices and challenge that necessity–and go right up the line to the director until you get an explanation. </p>
<p>My experience: first child, accepted at state flagship, received a large merit scholarship before we had made any financial aid applications. Regardless, U’s policy was to require FAFSA for merit recipients. It made no sense to me but I did it…In the end this kid accepted a large merit award at a private school, which had requested FAFSA and Profile regardless of the certainty of a stats-based merit award that would make us ineligible for need. I submitted those forms too. When this private asked for FAFSA and Profile in subsequent years, I challenged that necessity, and they quickly backed down.</p>
<p>Wiser the second time around, I called and challenged the state flagship about their stated requirement (on the U’s website) for the FAFSA for merit recipients when families know they are ineligible for need-based aid. The first contact stated the FAFSA was necessary, but a senior staffer that I spoke with next gave it a little thought and said it was not necessary; merit would not be withheld–and in fact kids are posting they’ve received merit awards now, prior to any review of FA docs, so it is obviously not necessary.</p>
<p>My point is a phone call could save hours of work on those painful forms. In fact, not having to do those forms every year makes colleges that offer merit even more attractive to me (as our family’s closest thing to an accountant).</p>
<p>^Good to know, although it does not apply to my HS class of 2011 son ; his merit is of the “what is your SAT and GPA” persuasion. No FAFSA or PROFILE needed.</p>
<p>But I just wanted to say after a few years of avoiding the FAFSA for many of the reasons mentioned on this thread, it really didn’t take that long, especially if you have your “stuff” ready for someone doing your taxes. We wanted my D to have a " skin-in-the-game" loan, by sophomore year. My guess is, a lot of “family high earners” prepare something for someone doing their taxes. OTOH, the “PROFILE” was a lot more work.</p>
<p>We decided to take the loans provided by FAFSA as it made registration so easy every semester…ie. no money had to exchange hands…all electronic from one school account to another. Then, we had plenty of time to figure out what monies we would use to pay off the loans, and when. It was worth the effort. And we might even qualify for grants once we have more than one student in college.</p>
<p>Again thanks everyone for the helpful discussions. I got on the phone this morning and called several schools. Some are still closed till tomorrow. Most I spoke to, when I mentioned our household AGI and the fact we will only have one kid in college, advised that we do not bother to fill out the CSS profile. If we do wish to apply for Federal Loans (unsubsidize Staffod, for instance), we can fill out the FAFSA must later. Only Wash U has so called merit based scholarship and it is a complete seperate application. As for National Merit money, FAFSA or CSS is not required in the two schools that participate in this.</p>