<p>Hi.
I'd like to know what is the impact if we don't submit FAFSA and PROFILE when we know that we don't qualify for need based aid? We'd rather not go through the hassle of filling out those forms, if they won't help. We are definitely looking for merit scholarships for our son since both fed and institutional methodologies from Finaid.com show that our EFC is too high to qualify for need based aid. However, we don't wish to jeopardize his chances of merit aid in any way.
Thanks.</p>
<p>I didn't find the FAFSA a hassle and submitted it so the colleges knew that our son's application was complete. Oberlin requried the CSS and FAFSA. Our son called Oberlin explaining that we would not qualified for need base aid and they said that the CSS would not be necessary.</p>
<p>Another reason to submit the FAFSA. If colleges know that a student will not be offered any need based aid, they may be a bit more inclined to offer merit aid and perhaps also give that student a wee bit of admissions edge because few are need blind.</p>
<p>I think its well worth the 2 hours necessary for completing the fafsa.</p>
<p>Many colleges require the completion of the FAFSA even for merit aid. They require this so that they can be certain that you don't qualify for government subsidized grants like Pell. You need to check with the colleges themselves regarding policy. At my son's school, if you don't apply for finaid as a freshman, you are not eligible to do so in the future years. Also, having a completed FAFSA on file with the finaid department might be necessary should your family have an unexpected change in financial circumstances (e.g. parent loses their job). If the FAFSA is on file, many schools will reconsider your finaid situation for the second semester, for example. If it is not on file, they won't. It's really not that hard to fill out...it takes some time, but it's not that bad.</p>
<p>Just so I understand: if you're going to check "will not apply for financial aid" on the application, you should STILL submit the FAFSA?</p>
<p>Carolyn, you might check with each school's financial aid office to be sure, but many do ask to see the FAFSA info to help them divvy out the merit aid. Some "merit" aid is hooked to "need" by the donor of the scholarship, though many scholarships are, of course, given for merit alone. One state school where I live has students complete the finaid.org calculator to submit with the merit aid app. Seems like a good way to do it, but FAFSA is more official.</p>
<p>I know that BU requires some financial aid forms filed for two specific merit aid packages which are specifically aimed at students with low or zero calculated need.</p>
<p>Carolyn, yes, still fill out the FASFA and Profile. If nothing else, they can do something for the student if the family financial circumstances dramatically change. I've heard things like a parent dying or losing their job and the FinAid departments being able to do nothing because a FASFA wasn't on file and one couldn't be accepted until the next cycle.</p>
<p>It's a Royal Pain...but one should do it anyway, imo.</p>
<p>Fwiw, my D has a modest amount of merit aid but it would not have been forthcoming unless we'd filled out the FASFA, Profile, etc.</p>
<p>Some schools will not award aid at ALL if you check the "not applying for financial aid" box. Check with the schools to see.</p>
<p>I have not personally checked out this info, but a mom whose D is at NYU says that filling out the FAFSA qualifies her D for some lucrative and interesting jobs during the year. For whatever the reason, she says that is a criteria for qualifying for these positions. Also some states have some great loans that kids and parents can take with more generous terms than PLUS, and you do have to fill out the FAFSA for qualification, but the EFC does not make a difference for getting these loans.</p>
<p>I do know a lot of folks that have no problem paying full price and prefer to keep their finances private. They do not fill them out.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My kids have a joint educational trust set up by their great-grandmother when they were infants. We know we will not qualify for any aid for my daughter, and, in fact, are blessed in that we probably honestly won't need it because of the trust. But some of the schools my daughter is looking at do offer merit awards that she might qualify for -- which would be great as things might get squeeky by the time my son starts college. I had just assumed that there would be no reason to fill out the FAFSA because of this and thought (hoped) that maybe checking "no financial aid" would give my daughter a boost in admissions. Now I know that I better be asking about this when we talk to schools.</p>
<p>Carolyn, there may be a boost give in admissions if the college knows that the student will not be asking for aid. Some schools are upfront that they are not need-blind.</p>
<p>Ellemenope, Thanks. That was my understanding as well. Which is why I was somewhat confused about filing FAFSA when you are not really going to apply for aid. But it sounds like it really depends on the school.</p>
<p>I did not want to fill out the FAFSA for privacy reasons especially since there was no way we were going to qualify for any aid at all. It seemed embarrassing. But with my D at her school, you need to have it on file for any merit aids and awards. They don't care if the number is 99999999 max which means you aren't going to get any need based aid, but in order to get an RA position or some merit awards, it is needed. In some cases, it is used if two kids are very close to qualifying for a scholarship, the one who really needs the money will get the merit award. But if someone is clearly the best candidate and some the school wants for the award, it is not taken into consideration. I was very skeptical about this claim, but duly filled the danged thing out, reluctant and mumbling. Well, it did open up some jobs for her last year, and netted her a full ride this year. And now for this one applying for college, I have been told at a couple of schools that some internships, jobs and loans are dependent on having filed the FAFSA, again, never mind the results.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I do know a lot of folks that have no problem paying full price and prefer to keep their finances private. They do not fill them out.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>And that is perfectly fine...but they probably do not expect or want merit aid either.</p>
<p>The parameters of awarding merit aid is another one of those school-specific things. My S was offered a substantial scholarship by Umich, though we did not apply for aid. (We knew already from his sister's expereince that we wouldn't qualify.)</p>
<p>Carolyn, if you fill out FAFSA, but do not send it to the school, you don't have it on file with them, so the scenario of it being done in case circumstances change may not hold true in that case. OTOH, if you do have it sent to the school, you in effect have filed for aid, so you wouldn't be able to check the box, technically. It's fairly complicated, and may be a discussion you need to have with specific financial aid offices.</p>
<p>Thumper, I know we have discussed this before, and we've realized that different schools have different rules. However, by law, no school can totally bar you from applying for all aid, because much of it comes from federal sources, including many loans including the Stafford which is available to all students. The Pell grant also has very specific eligibility rules which the school cannot circumvent. They can limit or prohibit awarding of institutional aid, but not federal or state aid.</p>
<p>Whoa, I'm totally confused now. You can't actually file the FAFSA until your 04 tax return is ready, correct? So, DD is applying ED to a need blind school, and we won't get aid, BUT, I would like her to eventually get a campus job of her choice, so we still have time to wait for her decision the end of this week and file the forms? Then if she is not admitted to her ED school, can we wait and only file at schools where she is admitted? Since I know she won't qualify for need-based aid, is there any reason to file ASAP, if we are only looking at campus jobs and JIC situations? Do you have to file the Profile, too?
I was going to call the FA office if she was admitted, to get info an a pre-payment plan.
The one school where she may get merit aid says that merit is not dependent on applying for financial aid - I took that to mean we didn't have to apply</p>
<p>I did not fill out the little box that said we were applying for financial aid when D applied freshman year. We were told via letter by the college that we might want to file the FAFSA even if we were not applying for financial aid (a general letter to all families, by the way, not a personal thing), if we wanted D to be considered for a list of things. So, since she was interested on some of the things on the list, we did file, and D sent a letter to financial aid expressing interest in some of those specific programs and also saying that we had filed the FAFSA in order to be eligible for any of them. After freshman year, it was not an issue at all since all dealings with admissions was over. She did get the goodies she wanted, so it seemed to go all right.</p>
<p>For each of my kids, I had them write and ask specifically about any programs that they looked interested or eligible for. I did not feel that just leaving it up to a bunch of overworked administrators was goign to give them a good shut. Demonstrated interest always seems to go a long way. I feel it worked very well, because my kids did end up getting a lot of the stuff they targeted , and just waiting to be assigned those awards seemed like a long shot to me. </p>
<p>From what adcoms tell me, the reason the financial aid question is prominently on th app is so that when a positive decision is made, the file goes of to financial aid so that they can get cracking with a package. The whole app is needed often times because there are often specific merit within aid awards even for schools that gvie aid only on the basis of need. Your app does not automatically go over to financial aid. So you do need to let everyone know what is going on. Particularly in schools that are need sensitive for admissions purposes. It is another pain in the neck thing to do, but it can reap some benefits.</p>
<p>Hi Cangel,</p>
<p>I am patiently waiting with you for the news later this week and hoping for the best.</p>
<p>Your daughter will have no problem finding a job on campus as there are many jobs for work-study as well as non work study students. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eseo/jobnet.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.dartmouth.edu/~seo/jobnet.html</a></p>
<p>Click Jobnet, for work study plan click any (as most jobs also consider non-workstudy candidates). </p>
<p>My daughter's job is off campus at the pre-school on the Army base, the free bus (Advance transit) picks her up in front of the Hanover Inn, drops her off at their door. She told me that next year, she is interested in becoming a UGA (I'll keep you updated)</p>
<p>Her roommate is a full pay and is working for WISP (Women in Science Program ) as an intern as loves her job.</p>
<p>Your best bet would be to contact the financial aid office concerning how to handle the FAFSA. However, you can fill out your FAFSA on Jan 1 using the information from your last pay stub and "guesstimating everything using your last year's taxes as a guide. You can always go back and amend the FAFSA.</p>
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<p>Sigh< And the only good thing about paying out the big bucks was not having to fill out the darned paperwork! THis is assuming she gets accepted!</p>
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