i am not planning to fill out FAFSA forms or anything bc when my brother did college apps, we received no financial aid whatsoever. however, i heard that colleges still use it to determine even merit-based scholarships. is this true? cuz otherwise, i don’t want to waste time filling out the forms.
<p>That's correct. Also, with the two of you in college, you may qualify for aid. Have your parents use one of the financial aid calculators (there's one on the collegeboard site) to check your family's EFC with you and your brother in college.</p>
<p>Well, some colleges use it and some do not. S was offered merit money w/o filling out FAFSA (Like above, knew from first kid we wouldn't get any, and no college overlap.)</p>
<p>thanks. any other comments?</p>
<p>bumppppp bump</p>
<p>ohio_mom gave you good advice.</p>
<p>I was going to say the exact same thing as ohio_mom with two in college, your EFC is lower for each one of you, and say your efc is 40,000, with two in college the EFC would be 20,000 for each student.</p>
<p>If you are certain you will not need financial aid, and that you are not going to qualify for any based on your family income last year, you should call each college where you have your apps and ask if there are any merit scholarships that require the FAFSA in order to for you to be eligible, and if you do not file the FAFSA or for financial aid freshman year, if you would be ineligible for future years. If the answer, is no, and your parent agree that they are willing to take the risk if anything unusual happened this year that affects your tuition payment such as illness or job loss, than there is no need to fill in the FAFSA. I put in all of these stipulations because there are school that will not permit you to file for financial aid if you did not do so upon first applying, or they have a waiting period. Also, emergency aid at the school is not available for those who did not file the FAFSA. FAFSA does not just give you an EFC and make you eligible for government and school aid. It also serves as a clearing house for a number of other issues. You are not entitled to federal aid if there are some issues involving your family. Past defaults on federal loans, Not registered for selective service when you are 18, already having gotten an undergraduate degree are some things that are screened when you fill out FAFSA. That 's why the state scholarships awarded on a gpa/SAT basis and not need based still require a FAFSA.</p>
<p>You are crazy not to fill out a FAFSA. It is well worth the tiny bother to do this. As others have pointed out, having 2 kids in college is a very significant change in your family's profile. And not having done it could harm you if you later qualify.</p>