My DD applied for her top school in ED round in late October. Although our FAFSA and Net Price Calculator all indicated that she will be full pay, her college counselor suggested that she put the option of needing financial aid in Common Apps. The thinking from the counselor was that she may get some financial aids down the road when her older brother who has already graduated from college and is working will go back to graduate school and need our family support. I thought the federal aids and institutional aids will not consider siblings who go to graduate schools even if they have to rely on family support. So we have submitted the FAFSA and CSS Profile to the school. Anyway, after I asked about this, she said it does not matter whether my daughter asked for financial aids or not since the ED school is a need based school. The admission decision will not be impacted by the need of financial aids. She also suggested that if we feel strongly about the potential impact on admission, we could send an email to the admission officer and financial aid office to withdraw the financial need option.
Any opinion on what we should do? inform the school that we dont need the aid, or just let it stay as being selected since the school will not consider the financial needs in their admission decision. Thanks
The first thing you need to know is that most schools that meet full need don’t count graduate school as having two in college. I know of two. A simple phone call to the college should answer this question.
I can’t tell you what to do about the FA forms. I will tell you that my daughter applied to 8 schools that are need blind and also meet full need. She was accepted to 7 of these schools and got off of the waitlist at the 8th. We filled out the fafsa and CSS profile for all 8 schools. Is your daughter’s ED school need blind?
I would call (or ask your daughter to call if she is home during business hours) the ED school FA office and ask:
Do you count graduate school as two in college?
If we don’t fill out the FA forms now (meaning you pull them out) and we have job loss etc down the road, will that be held against us? In other words...do we need to fill out the forms now just in case our financial situation changes and we apply for aid down the road? Can we fill them out later if necessary?
The answers to these questions may help with your decision…but in my opinion, if a school is need blind… filling out the FA forms won’t make any difference in terms of acceptance. Students applying for FA get accepted all the time.
I wouldn’t worry about this at all. If the school is need aware, it will be very clear that you have NO need, and the school doesn’t need to provide you with any funds. You will be full pay.
If the school is need blind for admissions, the admissions office won’t know anything about your financial aid applications at all.
There are only a handful of colleges that place restrictions on aid in subsequent years for U.S. citizens/permanent residents.
Most colleges do not count grad school students as siblings in college when computing institutional need based aid.
I guess the big questions I have are…do you need financial aid? Do you need financial aid? Will you need it when the sibling is in grad school? Do you plan to support the sibling in grad school? Do you have sufficient money saved, along with current earnings to pay for college costs?
This isn’t your first time with a freshman college applicant. What did you do the first time, and why did you change that if you did. If it’s the same as the first time around, why are you worrying about this now.
IF the school considers need in admissions, they are interested in your ACTUAL need, not whether you simply applied for financial aid. If you applied for FA and have little or no need, then it’s irrelevant.