No love for FAFSA

Parents Forum
1

<p>So my son has been accepted at several schools that apparently were pretty good matches for him. Now I wonder about financial aid / merit awards. Two of the colleges sent offers of 1/2 tuition almost immediately, the others were mum on the subject of awards. </p>

<p>So, ok, I’m thinking I need to fill out a FAFSA. The problem that I have is that my S’s dad doesn’t speak to us, will have nothing to do with college funding, is in another state, hopefully you get the picture. If he did disclose his financial situation, it would not impair our ability to get aid. But for a number of reasons (e.g. spite), this will not happen. (I know…how could you do that to your son…let’s not go there).</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice regarding the following:</p>

<li><p>How do you find out a specific school’s approach to financial aid. I’ve been to the websites and we filled out the requested essays / recommendations on the applications. But when I don’t hear anything, it’s hard to know if that’s because there is nothing to be had, or we just need to wait longer, or should I pick up the phone and call. (I hear reprises of ‘but it’s the students job to do this’ in the back of my head, suffice it to say that’s not going to happen…I’m happy that he, yes he TOTALLY did the application process…no counselors, no parents, no paid consultants.)</p></li>
<li><p>Is there anything that should be done with schools when they offer merit awards? Should we send a thank you note or other acknowledgment of their offer? Do they ever increase if you call and ‘negotiate’? Will they call to followup to see if he’s interested?</p></li>
<li><p>Can I do anything regarding ‘aid’, should I bother filling out the FAFSA for me and submitting it? Or should I not even bother. Should I make the colleges aware of this?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>When we looked at the list of potential schools, we tried to pick ‘good matches’ and a couple specifically because they mentioned merit awards at college fairs. My S didn’t ‘reach’, (a) we didn’t see a great need for an ivy school and (b) we weren’t sure how hard it was to really get into the schools that he picked as ‘matches’…they all seemed to want us to believe it was more difficult to get into than it appears in the results.</p>

<p>So bottom line, he’s done his part, I need to figure out the $$ part of this. I’ve read all the general stuff, but the situation seems a little non-compliant.</p>

<p>Any input is greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>First of all, FAFSA is a must... but not the first step in the process. First you must fill out the financial aid form that the school requests - I did mine through <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegeboard.com&lt;/a>, which is where I was directed from the school's website. If you cannot get your ex-husband's financial information, all you need to do is explain this in the area for special explanations on the form and/or via a separate letter. Personally, I recommend a separate letter because it will call attention to your situation. It seems to me that these financial aid officers want to help,and if approached honestly and nicely will do whatever they legitimately can.</p>

3

<p>I filled out the FAFSA as an independent student so it was a little different for me, but you can fill out the form on the FAFSA website: <a href="http://www.fafsa.gov%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.fafsa.gov&lt;/a> directly and they do not charge a fee. Beware of many similar sounding websites with different spellings and endings that may want to charge you a fee.</p>

4

<p>In broader terms, some schools will be understanding and accomodating and some will be like a Soviet bureaucracy with regards to a non-cooperative former spouse.</p>

<p>DoS, your best tool in negotiating financial aid is a better offer from an "equal" or "better" school.</p>

<p>Imo, enough schools want the FAFSA no matter what, even for just merit aid, that, despite the process being akin to a root canal (I think the Profile is the worse of the two), it's worth doing.</p>

5

<p>The FAFSA does NOT require you to disclose any information whatsoever about the father's income - it asks only for the custodial parents information. So you need not be concerned about that for purposes of the FAFSA.</p>

<p>Most colleges have a specific section of their web site for "financial aid" which lists all requirements and deadlines, as well as an email address for the financial aid department. </p>

<p>You need to check whether some of the colleges require the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA. That process does information about the father's income.... but not from you. Instead, the father fills out a Non Custodial Parent form and sends it directly to the college. Or, the film can be filled out directly on the CSS web site, in a way that lets you and your son verify that he has completed the form, but keeps the information confidential from you - essentially a separate password & user id is issued and emailed to him when you complete your part. </p>

<p>You may have better luck getting your ex to complete the form if your son is the one that does the asking. If you want financial aid you really should complete these forms -- you can't possibly make things worse than you would by not competing the forms.</p>

6

<p>First and foremost... Do not skip the FAFSA or other FA forms. You'll regret it.</p>

<p>Your ex-husband will not be required for the FAFSA.</p>

<p>Check out the colleges' financial track records at collegeboard.com to see how generous they are with FA. It is in the financial section of each school's profile.</p>

<p>Don't worry about thank you notes, and don't expect to see financial award letters until March or April. Most everything you see at this time are preliminary awards based upon grades or test scores.</p>

7

<p>Good point, Calmom, about the FAFSA not asking about the non-custodial parent's income. The FAFSA & Profile blur into one onerous swamp to me but, of course, they are different.</p>

8

<p>from the fafsa website:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/faq002.htm#faq002_2%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/faq002.htm#faq002_2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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[quote]

If your parents have divorced or separated, answer only the questions about the parent that you lived with most during the last 12 months. If you did not live with one parent more than the other, answer only the questions about the parent who provided most of your financial support during the last 12 months.

[/quote]
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