Is there any reason to file Fafsa with high income?

<p>I just sat down to file our fafsa and can't think of a good reason to file. Our income last year was over 200k. I don't think we would want a stafford loan. I'm sure we would not meet any financial aid requirements. Am I missing something?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Some schools require the FAFSA for consideration of even merit aid. Check your schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Your college student is able to take a stafford loan in their name only if you file a FAFSA.</p></li>
<li><p>Some colleges will not allow you to apply for and receive INSTITUTIONAL aid in subsequent years if you do not apply as an incoming freshman.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Annotating thumper’s response #3 a bit, check with the financial aid offices of the schools where your child is applying to see if this applies to you.</p>

<p>Some schools require you to file as an incoming freshman in order to receive aid ever for the next 4 years. If things were to change somehow with your income in the next 4 years, or student is currently or becomes eligible for merit aid having filled the form out could be beneficial.</p>

<p>The only place you can get the answers about any benefit of filing the FAFSA with high income is by contacting the FAid offices where your kiddo is applying and likely to attend. We didn’t bother to complete the FAFSA, as the calculator indicated that we’d be unlikely to get any FAid and S didn’t apply to schools that required the FAFSA for merit awards. </p>

<p>Other families filed the FAFSA, “just in case” for schools that required it to be filed for incoming freshman year in case FAid was EVER needed while their students were in school. I preferred not to have my financial info out there & have no regrets.</p>

<p>We are also not applying for need-based aid but we filled out the FAFSA anyway because our D will take out a small Stafford loan (actually paid by us) in order to establish a credit rating while in college.</p>

<p>I will have to check with the schools (all 7 of them!) and determine the best course of action. It seems like such a huge identity theft opportunity for anyone at these schools that has access to all these figures (SSNs, AGI). The whole fin aid process seems kind of crazy to me. </p>

<p>Thank you to everyone for help in figuring out this maze.</p>

<p>Just called/emailed 4 out of our 7 schools. No one would give me a straight answer. Just said it could have an impact - you should file. I guess they don’t want to commit. We want any merit aid coming our way so I’m stuck filing.</p>

<p>If you have ever filed your own income tax forms, you won’t find the FAFSA all that hideous. The trickiest part for me is digging up the current value of multiple bank accounts. If you haven’t already done so, print out the formula itself, and take a look at it on paper. I’ve found that that helps me remember the various items that I have to coordinate every year. <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/082511EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanks, happy mom. I’m actually a CPA, so it’s not really the filing, but instead the vulnerability of putting our finances, social security numbers, etc.out there when the schools don’t need the information. I think I just needed to fuss a little bit about it. First world problem!</p>

<p>I think you’re very wise to be concerned about your personal information, and there’s no reason to disclose if you receive no benefit. It’s none of their business.</p>

<p>You (or your parents) should contact the schools, ask hard questions, and get the actual facts. Many of the counselors who answer the phone will automatically say “just file it,” probably because that’s the safe answer from their point of view. You may need to find someone who actually knows a bit more.</p>

<p>Generally the FAid office has a supervisor or someone who ACTUALLY KNOWS rather than the rubber stamp, you “should,” just to cover themselves in case they messed up. Several of the schools S was considering said you needed to file FAFSA to get merit aid but when asked more closely & specifically where it said in writing that the FAFSA was required for merit aid, the admitted it actually wasn’t. He did get significant merit aid at 3 Us without any FAFSA ever being submitted. The U he matriculated at gave him increasing amounts of merit aid every year until he graduated and we never gave them any financial information. (Of course, each U is different.)</p>

<p>A question in a similar vein: if you have a high EFC can filing the FAFSA hurt you? For example, two identical high stats students with all the extras applying to a private college. One student has an EFC of $20000 and the other with an EFC of $70,000. Both are competing for the same merit scholarships. Will the college look at the student with the high EFC and offer them a lower merit package with the hope the the higher EFC student will end up at this private college if the DD/DS really wants to go there? I wonder if in this challenging financial times, more and more merit scholarships aren’t developing a need based component? (Please note I am not asking if it is “right” for the high EFC student to expect any aid.) Are you smarter to drag your feet filling out the FAFSA if your EFC is higher?</p>

<p>We haven’t filed the FAFSA yet, but for my ED school we filed the CSS and were surprised to receive an 8k/year board of trustees need scholarship, and we have an income well over 200k. You never know what they’ll give you!</p>

<p>We didn’t bother. Not only did we have a large income, we also committed the grave sin of saving in a 529 and having money in a savings account for emergencies. </p>

<p>I just don’t like the idea of people knowing all that personal information either. I firmly believe merit is merit, and if it has anything to do with parents financial info, then it isn’t merit.</p>

<p>It seems like such a huge identity theft opportunity</p>

<p>I just don’t like the idea of people knowing all that personal information either.</p>

<p>Too late to be paranoid now.
It’s all out there already, anyway.
I’m not going to sweat one more form.</p>

<p>We have WAY too much equity (for Us that consider such things) as well as an income that is too high. We were only interested in merit awards & figured if none were made, we’d plan accordingly. Worked for us & no regrets.</p>

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<p>Merit aid is a recruiting tool, designed to snag students who might go elsewhere. Let’s say it’s $10k, and COA is $55k. If the low EFC student’s need is being fully met by need-based aid, then the admissions folks might figure that there’s no need to spend the merit aid on that student. If they swap out some need-based money for the merit money, that student still pays $20k. If they give the low EFC student an additional $10k in merit money, that student will pay $10k. Giving the merit money to the higher EFC student means that student pays $45k. </p>

<p>If the school guarantees to meet need, they can accept both students, offer them both money, and ideally get both to matriculate. If the school is need-aware, they may accept both…or they may choose to just go with offering the high EFC student merit money, figuring that they only spend $10k on that student.</p>

<p>First attempt at FAFSA and Profile I got as far as the prompt to enter my child’s driver’s license number, got chills and shut it down. Looked again later and realized entering the number was optional. Have similar revulsion to providing Feds with all details of our financial status. I worry less about identity theft than about what eager IRS agents may do with the information. We filed solely to show colleges that the money is there, all they need to do is provide an offer of enrollment.</p>

<p>I agree with Slithy regarding merit aid. We had no FA need, but S had a school who came up with a new merit scholarship (in addition to the merit already offered) and gave him work study to entice him to come.</p>