<p>NewEnglandMother, when an application asks if you are applying for FA, do they mean are you filling out the FAFSA? I was under the impression some schools REQUIRE you to fill out the FAFSA, for consideration of scholarships, statistics, etc., and even if you don’t get FA per se, you have to fill it out in order to get loans?</p>
<p>Yes some schools do require you fill out FAFSA for merit. I am not sure if you would then indicate that you are applying for FA on the common app. Anybody? In the case I described there was no requirement at this one school to apply for FA or fill out any FA forms for merit awards. Since I suspected they offered merit to “full pays” we tested my theory by not applying for FA at this one school. The result does not really prove my theory but I still think this particular school does use merit to lure desirable students it might not otherwise be able to entice to attend. i.e. the student is full pay but given a $38k reduction they may decide to attend that school. Does that make sense? At the other schools that provided merit we had also applied for FA. They were all “meet need” schools and some no-loan/meet need schools (my personal favorites!)</p>