A friend of mine hired a financial aid advisor who entered all of her information on the FAFSA for her, and in the end she got a huge aid package from a school that she doesn’t believe she would have gotten without his help.
I had never heard of people doing this. It’s a huge expense, but she says it paid off. Have other people had any experience with this?
You are going to pay someone else to enter your data for you? Either your friend qualified for aid (in which case, why pay someone to do data entry if you have limited finances) or your friend’s advisor “cooked the books” and got her aid to which she was not entitled.
What exactly is your question?
You either qualify for federal aid or you don’t. You’ll either qualify for FA at the school or you won’t. A “professional” isn’t going to legally be able to change your EFC (at least by any significant amount).
The FAFSA is pretty self-explanatory and IMO it would be a complete waste of money to pay someone to do data entry.
Agree with the others. The FAFSA is pretty straight forward. It’s not like a tax return where a professional might be able to help you with exemptions you didn’t know about. For the most part it’s just data entry.
I could imagine an advisor might be helpful the years prior to application season. They could advise where to invest money to maximize aid and save for college. But someone to just fill out a form? Not much they can do there.
The FA advisor should only advise you how to allocate your asset legally to maximize aids. Having someone enter the data in FAFSA does not get you extra aid.
There is not a lot of allocating of assets which can be done (legally) by the time you are ready to enter your data in FAFSA other than spend cash on hand or in a checking account to drive that number down. I guess you could prepay your mortgage/electric bill/recurring expenses. But that’s not rocket science, and for a family which is sensitive about cash and costs, likely not worth paying someone to show you how.
Doing some straightforward financial and tax planning when you have a two year old- yes, that’s worth getting a professional’s advice. But once it’s time to fill out FAFSA?
The information entered on the FAFSA should have been the same regardless of who entered it.
Your friend spent money unnecessarily.
The other thing that financial aid and just generic college advisers can do is steer people towards colleges that might be more generous with aid for their clients.
@AroundHere sure, a college advisor can steer a family towards more generous colleges…but that has NOTHING to do with filling out the FAFSA.
Regardless of who enters that FAFSA data, it should be the same…and the outcomes for receipt of aid would have been the same.
@thumper1 No argument there. In order to be worth A hgh fee, the advisor would have to have done more than just fill out a FAFSA.
I’d bet a shiny nickle that you can get just as good information for free here on CC as you could from a pricey advisor.
Yet people make a living from this and refer their friends.
I think in complicated situations it can help. Plus the FAFSA is confusing if you have not done research. An aquaintance had a weird situation with a mentally ill family member and he did well using an adviser. He recommended the person to a close friend who is high income, all W2. The adviser was very upfront and said he could not help her and not to bother making an appointment after she spoke to him on the phone.
People make a living operating casinos but that doesn’t mean you should head on over this weekend with your paycheck.
The FAFSA is NOT confusing. Anyone who is smart enough to go to college…should be able to complete the form if they have the tax forms, and any outer info needed regarding assets.
People pay H&R Block to fill out 1040EZ forms every year too. It’s a personal choice to use a service to fill out the fafsa or not. The OP’s friend may also have a school theat requires a CSS too.
But really…the OP is saying that because the finaid advisor completed the FAFSA, the kid got more aid than otherwise…and that isn’t true.
Just like the 1040EZ. No matter who fills in the blanks…they should be the same…and your tax refund will be the same.
These people should go to their VITA site of IRS to prepare 1040 for free.
For most people who will use the tax software correctly. I don’t think people should fill out 1040EZ by hand!
Oh I agree…my point is…no matter who fills in the blanks on the 1040EZ or the FAFSA, the outcome would be the same.
The OP is suggesting that because someone else did the FAFSA, the student got more aid. I say…poppycock.
But OP’s friend could believe that she (friend) got a better award because she used the consultant. It could be true if friend couldn’t be bothered to answer the questions correctly, or if consultant asked some pointed questions that allowed some assets or income to be excluded (how many parent incorrectly put a child’s 529 as a child’s asset instead of as a parent’s?).
Just like with taxes, which anyone SHOULD be able to complete without a lot of help, knowing how to complete the FAFSA, what to include and what to leave off, does help. How many times have we seen a question posted about how to count the 21 year old part time student who lives in the basement? About income from SSI or a pension? Someone might include a student loan from a previous semester in a bank account balance.
Absolutely agree that OP (or anyone else) should be able to save the money on a consultant and get the exact same results, but it will take a little time and effort to fill out FAFSA. Some people prefer to pay an ‘expert’ to do something they can do themselves. I pay the man to change the oil in my car, someone to cut the grass, for the pre-chopped veggies at the grocery store.
OP said it,was a “huge expense”. That being the case, a little reading would get the job done…for free.
I don’t think your comparison of services that you don’t really know about or,that might need special equipment (like a way to,lift the car for an oil change) really meshes with doing a FAFSA or paying someone else to do it.
And even if it did…assuming you knew what you were doing…the job could get done just as well for free.