Does anyone know why some Universities require the filing of the FAFSA and CSS profile to be considered for Merit Scholarships? We will not qualify for any financial aid. What does “Merit” have to do with income levels?
What university requires CSS Profile for merit? I’ve never heard of that.
@love2bnana, I have that same question.
May I ask you what schools are you referring to? I checked the websites for Vanderbilt and Wake Forest with that very question and didn’t see that the FAFSA was required this year, so I’m wondering if I did not look hard enough.
I have read on this website that some schools require the financial aid applications to be considered for merit scholarships. The website for the school should describe whether or not this is true for the school. For many schools it is not required. However, even if you aren’t eligible for need based aid, you may still want to do the financial aid forms so that you have the option to take out a subsidized loan. You can’t otherwise. You can always opt out of the loan offer if you don’t end up needing it.
University of Miami and Duke require both. It seemed odd to me so I called admissions at both Universities to verify.
What do FAFSA/CSS have to do with being considered for an academic merit scholarship?
I don’t really know the answer to that when you are not going to qualify for need based aid, but some students qualify for both, and I believe it has something to do with that. If you want a certain school you have to jump through that school’s hoops, it is just the way it is.
My son was offered merit at U Miami this year and we didn’t submit CSS Profile.
BobWallace - Did you submit the FAFSA? Do you mind sharing your sons stats?
This Q comes up every year. I think we’ve concluded that some schools want to put together the best FA pkg, so they want to see if the student qualifies for any fed aid as well.
That said, most schools probably do not ask for FAFSA for merit consideration.
where are you seeing that UMiami requires FAFSA? I’m not seeing that.
[QUOTE=""]
Students considered for an academic scholarship have significant academic achievement. Those selected to receive a scholarship take the most challenging curriculum, earn the highest grades and present either SAT or ACT scores* that place them at the top of our applicant pool. Students are automatically considered for the President's Scholarships when they apply for admission to the University. Students selected to receive a President's Scholarship will be notified no later than the end of March by the Office of Admission. Students applying for a second Bachelor degree are not eligible to receive a President's Scholarship.
[/QUOTE]
We did submit FAFSA to all colleges where he applied in case he wanted to take a loan.
His stats were UW GPA 3.8 and SAT 1540 CR+M, and Miami offered $26K/year.
We had to file the FAFSA and Profile at Boston University…and my son had a music performance scholarship there…totally merit based. And my son had already been awarded the scholarships…the school would not disburse them without the FAFSA and Profile filed.
OH…and we were also selected for verification all four years.
I asked this question of a financial aid officer friend. She said they require the FAFSA because if someone is entitled to the Pell Grant, the school awards that first and fills in need after that.
I think it is as Mom3ck says, to make sure the student is getting any federal aid he qualifies for (especially if the school guarantees to meet need) and it keeps everything in one place.
Florida BF (merit based) used to require the FAFSA but 2 years ago stopped that requirement. I think it had to do with non-citizens not being able to file it. I do know that both my kids’ schools did not award her merit aid until the FAFSA verification was completed. I’m sure I could have told them that I wasn’t going to complete it and then the award would have been posted, but the schools just waits for the FAFSA and then posts onto the same FA award.
The school also needs the student’s SSN and parent’s address for tax forms. Those aren’t actually required for the application if the student doesn’t want to provide them on the app, but they are part of the FAFSA.
Why the CSS? That is entirely up to the school and they could want award need based aid rather than merit?
I do think sometimes some schools do some goofy things with merit. A fella from DD’s class (entering college fall 2012) - dad had one more work year to retirement, so mother moved into their second home that they had owned for years in Oregon. Evidently they met the criteria, did what they needed to do for the residency stipulations, having graduated HS from another state - or maybe his merit award waved the OOS. Music dept first offered him a nice scholarship, but pulled some of it away when he received a university wide academic scholarship. I thought that was tacky. Younger brother had to move and do his senior year of HS in Oregon, to move with the mom.
At my daughter’s school, they stack certain kinds of awards from the school and not others. There are 3-4 levels of the big merit awards, mostly for grades but also you get the guaranteed minimum (level 3) for things like eagle scout, gold girl scout, robotics club, etc. If you also qualify for the level 2 or level 1 for grades/scores, that lower level doesn’t stack. However, a scholarship for being a legacy or having a sibling do stack. If you win the super duper scholarship awarded to just one student per year, that wipes out all the other scholarships.
I’m sure the music dept would rather have this student awarded a scholarship from the university because then it could give the music award to someone else.
Agree @twoinanddone but the school should have been honest. I don’t think awarding something and then taking it away w/o any kind of ‘caveat’ or warning or information on how they handle. Plus this student was very deserving of the music merit award.
My D received a NMF scholarship (merit only) at Denison which required filing the CSS Profile as a freshman. I believe that was so that all federal aid could be included. Since we did not qualify for any federal aid except loans it was not required on subsequent years.
mom2collegekids - It was on their website for all new 2016 applicants. I called and spoke with an admissions officer yesterday and he confirmed that it was necessary. (You previously commented on one of my threads). Our son has an ACT score of 35. His GPA is 4.43. He has 8 years of foreign language; 4 years of Latin, 3 years of Greek, and 1 year of German that he took over 7 weeks at Harvard this summer which is 8 college credits.
Interesting. It appears that UMiami hasn’t updates all of its pages because on one of their main scholarship pages they indicate that every applicant will be considered for their scholarships, which really wouldn’t be the case if a student hadn’t submited FA paperwork. And, that page makes no mention of FAFSA being needed.
I wonder why UMiami doesn’t list the FAFSA req’t on this page?
http://www.miami.edu/admission/index.php/undergraduate_admission/costsandfinancialresources/scholarships/new_freshmen_first_year_students/
Can you link the page where you’re seeing the req’t?
Some schools have rules that the total amount of “free money” student can receive can’t exceed the tuition portion, so if a student qualifies for Pell, SEOG, or state aid, the school wants to know so it can preserve some of its own funds.
I also wonder if CSS schools that use NCP info want to make sure that FAFSA is filed because while sometimes the NCP income is so high that the student can’t qualify for any FA, but the CP income is low enough to qualify for Pell, and they want to make sure that Pell gets awarded.
Erin’s Dad… the Profile is NOT used to determine federally funded aid…the FAFSA is.
True. I had to fill out both. They required the Profile in addition to the FAFSA. Their money, their rules.