<p>Looking for advice for MI/HA families with regard to financial aid. </p>
<p>Our 2007 son is now in the process of competing for merit scholarships, and we're pretty certain we won't qualify for any need-based aid due to our HA. </p>
<p>We're wondering whether it would be better to just forget about submitting FAFSA/CSS because they will reveal assets. Could assets hurt one's chances of merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Any advice from anyone with knowledge of this situation would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I would think that Merit has to do with the qualifications of the student rather than the income of the parent. I believe that Merit scholarships are not based on need.</p>
<p>If you look on the CC threads that pertain to merit scholarships, many posters seem to think that merit scholarships are a crapshoot or arbitrary. Could it be that need is (unofficially) a factor?</p>
<p>Some merit scholarships require you to submit FAFSA or Profile or other financial info. I think this is to just make the colleges sure that you are not leaving anything on the table wrt need-based aid, before they shell out their limited merit money. Even Bill Gates would have to do a FAFSA if his child was up for such a merit award.</p>
<p>So if you are applying for an award that requires it, then yes you have to do it. If no one is saying you have to file the financial info, then certainly you could skip it. </p>
<p>I read, however, your original post as saying "pretty certain" you are not eligible for need-based aid. You can change that to "darn certain" if you don't apply for it.</p>
<p>Be sure to run your numbers with one of the EFC estimators using both Federal (for FAFSA) and Institutional (profile). Since FAFSA considers primarilly income, you may do better at schools that determine need with the FAFSA only.</p>
<p>Even though we will not qualify for need based aid I have been advised to complete fafsa as sort of an insurance policy against an unexpected change in my family's financial status, for example if I die or become disabled. I don't think filling out fafsa will adversely affect your chances for merit aid.</p>
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<p>True merit scholarships don't consider income or assets.>></p>
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<p>That may be true...but some schools REQUIRE the FAFSA and Profile even for merit aid. If the school's policy is that you need to complete these forms for all types of aid, you will have to do them. Check the finaid office or website for each college to know for sure.</p>
<p>IMHO it is very much worth the trouble to submit the FAFSA info. First, as was previously stated, many merit programs require that FAFSA be submited. Also, we discovered that the way that our assets were evaluated differed from institution to institution. We had a very happy ending.</p>
<p>Yes, there are some merit scholarships that have a tinge of need associated with them. Particularly if they are administered by admissions or financial aid. Most do ask for a FAFSA or other aid app. If they do not, and the college still wants to have need considered to some degree, they just look to see if the student has applied for financial aid, a question which is on most app forms. That can be a tie breaker for some merit awards.<br>
But for the most part, merit awards that do not ask for aid applications are just that, pure merit. When the determination for those awards are made, they do not get the financial aid forms or private information about your finances. It has been my experience that schools do respect that privacy, and if the info is to be shared, they let you know.</p>
<p>One of the schools that my d is applying to (Vassar) doesn't give merit scholarships. However, they do advise that everyone file the FA forms. Why? Because of something changes, or if you spend down your assets in the first year, you may qualify for aid in subsequent years. But Vassar gives money out first to those who have qualified as freshmen, and then those who applied as freshmen but didn't qualify, and then everyone else. So the newly-eligible sophomore will find him/herself at the end of the line.</p>
<p>There may be some schools where your high asset profile would keep you from "merit" aid. Then, it is not true merit aid.</p>
<p>We are a high asset family and our S received merit aid from several places, substantial $$ amounts in some cases. </p>
<p>Some of the schools required submission of FAFSA to be considered for merit aid. Some did not. IMHO, you should not hesitate to submit FAFSA if the school requires it for merit consideration and ... if you haven't done the EFC estimation, you should to see if need-based aid might be in your picture.</p>
<p>We too are a modest income, high assets family. Last year my dd was offered a merit scholarship between 500 and 5000 per year, dependent upon our fafsa info. The previous year our efc was absolutely outrageous (for dd#1) we hadn't even planned to file the fafsa. Well, we did anyway, and she got the 5000 per year scholarship. Go figure.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that merit aid is often used for enrollment management purposes -- that is, in order to entice high stat applicants to attend their safeties -- a school may be MORE likely to offer generous merit to a student that they know will not qualify for substantial need based aid anywhere. In other words, the college knows that their merit award is not going to be weighed against a more generous need-based award at another school. Also, within their own school, they may feel it is a better allocation of limited scholarship money to students who don't otherwise qualify for need-based grants -- so again, knowing that you do not qualify for aid may actually tip the balance in favor of getting an award.</p>
<p>I'm not saying it will -- I'm just saying that imagine that you are head of the scholarship committee and there are 2 students that you really like. One comes from a very poor family and will qualify for almost a full ride in need-based money both at your school and anywhere else. The merit money you are awarding comes from a specially endowed memorial fund that is managed & allocated separately from from the pool of assets used to finance need-based aid. Your money goes farther if you give it to non-needy students; and every dollar of merit money you give to the needy student may simply be a dollar that is subtracted out of their need package. </p>
<p>Obviously, each college's policies will be different -- but the point is, knowing that you do not qualify for aid can help as much as hurt with the merit award determination.</p>
<p>I know a number of kids from very wealthy families that have gotten merit money. I also know kids who filed FAFSA and other financial aid forms, for certain merit money, and got some awards despite high income or assets. </p>
<p>I know for a fact that a certain private school (not college) that has a scholarship exam for kids does look at financial need as one of the components for awards, but kids with no need, in fact, from down right wealthy families have gotten scholarships . The big full ride (only one given) tends to go to a high need family, but the other awards have gone to kids who had no need whatsoever. The school say outright that though need is a factor in the formula they use to determine who gets the awards, that it is entirely possible for an outstanding candidate with no need to get even the top award, and that it has happened. A point system is assessed on the app, exam and interview with need given points as well, and the system is designed so that even a max need candidate does not bump out a highly qualified candidate with no need. I would think this is not a unique setup for awards.</p>
<p>Thanks so much all for the information/views. We've calculated EFC several times on several different calculators, playing "what if" with them, and based on the calculators, we would get zip need-based aid at any of the schools to which s has applied. One never knows how each school uses information, but it seems the best solution is to go ahead and do the FAFSA/CSS. Wish we had started planning earlier, because we've heard it's perfectly legal to shelter assets in a tax-deferred annuity. (The biggest downside though is that you cannot use a tda to pay college expenses, or any others if the need would arise, without paying a penalty.) Too late for us, but the tda could be something worth considering for a family a little earlier in the game.</p>
<p>Just an FYI...DS's merit award was a music performance award based on his audition. It had NOTHING to do with income, assets, the FAFSA or the Profile. HOWEVER, the university requires ALL student who want to receive aid of any type (except a few highly competitive awards with separate applications) to submit both the FAFSA and Profile. We didn't qualify for a nickel of need based aid...but we submitted both forms because that performance award was substantial.</p>