Hello,
My DD is now applying as a freshman… she told me today she will enroll and request a deferral to take a gap year… Do I still need to jump trough all the FA hoops this year for all the schools she is applying to? Seems pointless, as the schools will throw away her FA application anyway.
Anybody with deferral experience, please comment!
If it was me, I would be very curious to know what kind of FA package the school was offering. And what happens if for some reason the deferral request is denied, or your daughter changes her mind? I bet once you actually “jump through the hoops,” you’ll discover that completing the forms isn’t that big a deal.
Right now, you do not have all of the acceptances back. This year you need to jump through all necessary financial aid hoops so that you can get a package from all of your schools.
Once you compare packages and your daughter chooses a school and you as a family decide that it is an affordable option, then you will have to reapply for aid every year (minimally the FAFSA).
Some things to look out for are:
Need based aid will remain consistent as long as your income and assets are consistent.
If your child receives a merit scholarship, that scholarship may not be available should your child decide to defer admission. If you are dependent on this money, you definitely need to ask as it may be the difference between deferring and enrolling.
Are there other siblings in college or high school now?
You asked the same question on your other thread…where you missed the early action deadline.
I will write the SAME response.
Do the fafsa. Get it done. Your daughter might change her mind and decide to not defer enrollment. Also, call the school. You need to know the school’s policy regarding this. For all you know…if you don’t apply for aid, the school might think you are happy to be a full pay family…even a year from now. You need to CONTACT THE SCHOOL now…today.
And you should have completed the fafsa yesterday! Get it done. It’s free, it’s based on the 2015 tax return. You can link to the IRS data retrieval tool, and the whole thing will take a very short time to do.
You already DID the Profile…so you have the information.
You inquired elsewhere about BU ED. Here is their deferral info:
http://www.bu.edu/admissions/files/2016/04/deferral-form-2016.pdf
You also posted that your student got accepted to IU…but they do not use the Profile.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why you just aren’t doing this fafsa. Please explain.
The colleges will not throw her FAFSA away. They will process it because they don’t know that she will take the gap year (or change her mind).
of course you should do the FAFSA so that you can see the results! Do you want your child to choose the school that will give the lousy aid or the better aid!
And you already DID the Profile…so you have all of the information.
I agree with the others.
You will need to know what kind of aid if any you can qualify for based on the already completed 2015 tax return.
If your income is too high for federal or state aid, then it comes down to merit and institutional grants.
The schools might require you to apply for aid as a freshman to be able to get future aid, they might require FAFSA even for merit aid or to see if your D qualifies for federal aid before they pay any of their money.
If you don’t complete the forms then you don’t know what the offers would be if she started this year, and have nothing to base any future aid on.
Not all schools let you defer and keep the admission, if she is awarded merit she might not get it if she defers.
Did you run any net price calculators on the college websites to get an estimate of what kind of aid your family income and assets would qualify you for?
Yes, I ran calculators and they show that we do not qualify for any federal aid.
What about institutional aid? And what’s with the different user name?
Are you willing to let your D choose any school and without applying for aid?
moderators note
Accounts are registered to 2 separate people; mom who is tula32 and daughter, tulachka32. we will be watching threads and accounts of these 2 users and will not hesitate to take action if either violates CC’s TOS.
Really, you’d take an admit, then defer for this college, all without knowing IF there will be any aid or sufficient aid, then just throw the FA apps into the mix next year? Can you afford full pay? Or wouldn’t you like to know what aid she is in ballpark for, by their formula, before committing to this school?
Sounds like you and your H have recently separated. Your child filled out CSS w/o your input and guessed at income and assets of parents, and indicated “married” on CSS, but may put separated on FAFSA (which will cause problems).
Since both @tula32 MOM, and @tulachka32 (DD) are posting in this thread.
It wouldn’t be wise to bother with schools that require CSS and NCP forms because if the ExH will not provide info, then the student will not get any aid except a tiny loan.
Last week you were setting up a trust for a disabled relative but still had the money in your bank account. Did you get that sorted out yet? If the money’s still there when you file the FAFSA, I think you have to report it.
moderator’s note
Closing thread because OP has multiple threads going on and would be better served by having all of her information in one place.