<p>After getting a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering I've decided to work in industry for a couple of years before heading off to grad school. There's a company that is willing to pay a good portion of my tuition to get a Masters at the Graduate Schools that I'm interested in applying. I could pay the other portion of my tuition by myself, but I would have to really budget my money since my current starting salary is not a whole lot and I just finished paying all of my student loans from undergrad with the money I've been saving up over the past 2 years. </p>
<p>I heard that applying for FAFSA as a Grad Student will only qualify you for Federal Student Loans since you no longer qualify for any grants (Free Money). Is that true? In that case, should I even fill out a FAFSA? I don't have any need for taking out loans since I do have the money to pay for it myself. I was just wondering if there were any benefits of actually filling out a FAFSA in this scenario.</p>
<p>No, unless the school has grants or scholarships for grad students - in that case, it doesn’t hurt to fill it out. It’s really easy - you can just transfer your tax info in with the Data Retrieval Tool. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why you wouldn’t fill it out just in case, since it takes about 20 minutes all together (probably less with the Data Retrieval Tool). Remember that as a grad student you don’t need all of your parents information, so just pick up your tax returns from last year and enter that data or use the DRT. It takes a really short amount of time and very little effort.</p>
<p>But it’s true that you aren’t eligible for any federal need-based grants.</p>
<p>Still, you never know what kind of money the school might have/offer you - if you have the appropriate financial aid documents filed. I was offered a half-tuition scholarship by a professional master’s program I applied to. You also never know if you fall upon hard times or decide to take out a small loan to make things a bit easier on your finances.</p>
<p>Kudos to you for paying off all of your student loans from undergrad, btw!</p>
<p>We just found out that my daughter received a small alumni grant from her school, and the only requirements were that she be ‘deserving’ and have filled the FAFSA before the deadline. Had no idea these grants were available, and we only filled out the FAFSA ‘just in case’ as we’re not planning on taking the loans.</p>
<p>I’d suggest just doing it. You might get surprised like we did.</p>