<p>I'm trying to determine if we would be at an any disadvantage by NOT submitting FAFSA and CSS Profile. Our EFC is very high at $75k. The schools we're applying to do not require the FAFSA or CSS Profile to be considered for merit aid. We do not anticipate needing a Stafford Loan. So, would we be at an advantage or disadvantage by NOT submitting these forms?</p>
<p>Why don’t you have your child take out the Stafford Loan. It doesn’t matter that you will be able to afford their entire education, it gives them some ownership in their own education and it will also build up a credit history for them.</p>
<p>From my research, if your kid is border line on being accepted, not needing FA will help his/her chances. Maybe not true at all schools, but an advantage is an advantage…I’m in the same boat and do NOT plan on filing the forms.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>We aren’t having our kids take out any loans for undergrad because they will have to take out loans for med school and law school. If they took out undergrad loans, they would run out of borrowing power for med/law schools because there are maximums for combined undergrad/med and undergrad/law.</p>
<p>If you are certain that you won’t need a Stafford loan and FAFSA isn’t needed for scholarship consideration, then don’t bother.</p>
<p>You can always submit a FAFSA after the FA deadline if you ONLY want a Stafford loan. Then it won’t hurt admissions process at all.</p>
<p>When my son applied for college a few years ago, we submitted the forms for a rolling admissions school and an early admissions university that wanted preliminary info. so they could give a preliminary estimate of f.a. with an early admissions. It was clear from those two schools that we were not getting need-based aid. We didn’t file any more forms for him. He received many merit offers with no forms filed.</p>
<p>We are not filing any for our daughter this year. Although having two kids in college at the same time might reduce our EFC under some circumstances, the merit award my son has leaves us paying very little, so the EFC would not be affected at the schools she is considering.</p>
<p>A lot of people here on CC will advise you to file anyway, and you can consider their arguments. I don’t think it is necessary for everybody.</p>
<p>@midmo : I was under the impression your EFC would get halved as long as you have 2 kids in college, no matter what you’re actually paying.</p>
<p>We did not file for child number one. We don’t want her to have loans; she earned a nice merit scholarship and her job is to keep it.</p>
<p>“From my research, if your kid is border line on being accepted, not needing FA will help his/her chances. Maybe not true at all schools, but an advantage is an advantage.”</p>
<p>Any other thoughts on if this is true? What about the Ivy’s, could it make more of a difference with them?</p>
<p>Ivies are supposed to be need blind</p>
<p>Not applying for aid should only “help” at need aware schools.</p>
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<p>Is that true? Perhaps someone else can comment. It doesn’t make sense to me that my contribution is expected to be the same no matter what I am paying for the sibling already in college. But nothing about how college is financed makes good sense to me, so I shouldn’t be too shocked if you are correct.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I think that’s true…</p>
<p>It’s kind of crazy because if one gets a merit free ride, you’d think that would come into play, but it doesn’t seem to.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. We are now thinking about not submitting the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Decision on admission and any resulting merit awards will come mostly from music auditions which are very competitive. We are looking for anything to have a little edge. Fingers crossed…</p>
<p>The part of the FAFSA EFC generated by parent income and assets is divided between the number of students in school at the same time. FAFSA does not take into account (or even ask/know/care) the cost of the schools or what you are actually paying or what sort of merit aid/scholarships a student might have. None of those have any affect on the FAFSA EFC. Any part of the FAFSA EFC generated by by a student’s own income and assets stays with the student. And remember the FAFSA EFC does not mean that is all you will be expected to pay, it is merely a number used to determine eligibility for certain aid, particularly federal aid.</p>
<p>If you are dealing with schools that use CSS or their own financial aid forms then I believe they do ask about the cost of schools siblings may be attending and how much you are paying. My understanding is that the CSS ‘EFC’ is not divided the same way as the FAFSA one. At these schools the FAFSA is used to determine eligibility for federal aid and CSS is used to determine eligibility for the school’s own institutional aid.</p>
<p>If your EFC is high, wouldn’t submitting the FAFSA and CSS be advantageous? The schools would know that your have sufficient financial resources to pay for a full education and that you might even be able to donate when the school’s fundraisers come calling.</p>
<p>I’m trying to determine the best strategy. Knowing I won’t get aid with a high EFC ($75k), does it still make sense to submit, if not for any other reason than to show that we can afford their school. I just don’t want the high EFC to ruin our chances for merit aid. (Remember, the schools we’re applying to don’t require FAFSA or CSS Profile for consideration of merit aid). So the second strategy is to not submit so they won’t know that we have such a high EFC. Still feeling undecided by which strategy to use: Submit or not?</p>
<p>One other issue is what happens if you end up needing need-based aid in future years. Some schools will only allow you to apply for need-based aid later on if you filed a FAFSA (and?) or PROFILE when your child was applying for admission. If your EFC will be paid for in part by current earnings or by taking out loans that assume your current income continues, then you might want to check with each school to see what their policy is on applying for FA in the future. Maybe filing after the FA deadline would allow you to fulfill this requirement for schools that care, without hurting your child’s chances for admission.</p>
<p>Adcoms can tell how much you qualify for aid based on a lot of things, i.e they don’t have to look at your FAFSA. Just your kid’s college application will do.
I think it’s too much of a hassle for me so I did not fill one out.</p>
<p>OP, we also have a high EFC. Daughter applied EA to a school that don’t require CSS/FAFSA for merit aid. Like you, we were in limbo of “to do or not to do”. We had the same concern you had - wanted to fill it out to show the ability of full pay but worried the possibility of ruining the chance of merit aid. I actually filled Profile all the way to the infamous “enter the amount your parents think they will be able to pay”. It stalled us. We decided let the school figure out what we are willing to pay. So we did NOT file Profile or FAFSA. Before Xmas, daughter got the acceptance and the scholarship. The amount, if subtracted from COA, is in range with what we have in mind that we are WILLING to pay for this school. However, IF we filed Profile, are we going to get more, or less? Who knows.</p>
<p>You need to check with each school. Some require the FAFSA for merit aid. Some don’t. I have a kid in each category…
Another consideration is whether you have other children coming into college behind this one. For some schools if you don’t file when kid 1 is a freshman you don’t file for the remaining years…if say kid 1 is a sophomore and kid 2 is going into college you might actually qualify for FA and want to fill out FAFSA for both kids.</p>
<p>I did not file for my son because he received some merit money and I did not think we would be eligible for any money anyway. Well, I was pestered by the school to file. I think they may receive some thing for the students that file, or want to have access to the info on the file, whatever, so I filed one last year. Also, when I filed the FAFSA I did not check the box that said if student “needed” (I think it was phrased that way) any on campus job. Well, when he tried to get a job at the school they looked up that question and I had put “don’t know” and he was told that he was not eligible for any on campus jobs. Be careful what you check.</p>