<p>Ok we are high income. We have UGTM account for both boys( sr and soph) that have 35,000 in them. ( We will use these first. 529 plans didn't exist when we did this for the boys when they were babies.) Both also have 529 plans with 120,000 in them. Our daughter has 529 plan with 115,000 ( she's 11) We currently save 400 dollars a month for each of them that gets automatically put into their 529.</p>
<p>Oldest has a merit scholarship at Baylor worth 17,000 a year and same at TCU ( hasn't quite made his decision) . So we easily have enough in their accounts to fund the next 4 years. We won't qualify for any need based aid. Is there any reason at all to fill it out? I'm thinking no. My middle one will have nearly 60 hours of dual credit by the time he finishes high school ( already has 19 hours as a 10th grader) so it shouldn't take him more than 3 years to graduate wherever he decides to go... </p>
<p>No. THe only thing you might want to do is to file the FAFSA so that if something happens, job loss, need an extra course in the summer, etc, the availability of Stafford and Parent Loan money is right there and will take you minutes to access.’</p>
<p>My freshman decided he wanted to switch to the School of Business his second term freshman year, and to become an accounting major. Couldn’t get into the Acctg 2 course as his switch was not going to be effective until sophomore year, and that course was full, having given those already in the major and in that School. To stay on the 4 year graduation track, he needed to take the course over the summer locally. Some other issues also arose. He took out some of the Stafford loan money to cover --gotta do that before June 1 of that school year end, and took the course over the summer with the money and it also gave him and us some breathing room on some other issues. He also had a summer opportunity that he did not want to pass up which meant curtailing work that summer, and his next year dorm costs (as well as whole school costs )were higher as an upper classmen. By using the loan, we did not have a blip expenses which we would have without that money available. </p>
<p>ALso some kids don’t do so well in college, lose merit money, have to retake courses, and the Stafford is where they can take some accountability, in that it’s their loan, not the parent’s money. And if you come up short for money for any reason, the Parent loan option is there albeit an expensive one, as the interest rate is not that great at all given today’s low rate climate for those with good credit. But it’s a one minute, in the home, private, process.</p>
<p>^^^agree. Also, some schools require a FAFSA for merit aid. You might check on that with Baylor & TCU. We just filed and sent it last week to all of our Ds prospective schools for the reasons cpt mentioned above and at least one school required it for merit aid already awarded.</p>
<p>You didn’t ask this question, but it strikes me that you might want to slow down your contributions to the 529s, unless you get a great state tax credit or deduction. You can still save the $400/month, just park it in their UTMAs or your own account for now until their college plans become clearer. Otherwise you might be overfunding the 529s and will have to pay tax plus a 10% penalty on the gains for non-qualified withdrawals. If it turns out you need more in the 529s you can always add to them later.</p>
<p>At very least, apply for parent and for student PINs, put them in a safe place, so you can move fast if you need to do so. Otherwise, you have to apply for PINs, wait till they are assigned and you get them before you can submit the FAFSA form. If you feel like it, complete the FAFSA as you gatehr your tax things since it’s just easier that way with the numbers right there.</p>
<p>The PINs will be good forever for you and for at least the ug years for your student.</p>
<p>I’m a bit confused as well. If I clearly indicated on commonapp that I am not applying for FASFA do I still have to register/obtain a pin? Also, do the schools notify you on whether or not they require FASFA for merit based scholarships? i.e. Rutgers, SBU, Union, VCU, PSU</p>
<p>It does not say anywhere on the common app or any app whether you are going to filing a FAFSA. It asks if you are applying for financial aid–from the college. Everyone, anyone that falls within the FAFSA very broad guidelines can fill out a FAFSA. The money does not come from the college but from the federal government. If you want to be eligible for those funds whether you take them or not (the loans are the focus here) you have to get a PIN and fill out a FAFSA. Then if and when you want the money, and it can be well within the actual school year, you have the info sent to the school to get the loan proceeds sent there.</p>
<p>And no, not all school will notify you if they require FASFA for merit based awards. You can call the school and ask to make sure there are any awards there that require a FAFSA on file. Most merit awards do not need a FAFSA since it is pure merit they are assessing and the award is coming from Admissions, not Financial AId, usually two separate deparments. BUT, that is NOT always the case, so you had better check. FAFSA does not just calculate need. It screens your parents and you and clears all of you for loans with your SSNs and other ID. It is a federal form so lying on it carries some teeth in terms of penalty including jail time–yes. So if a school wants to make sure you are a citizen, for instance, or do not have a drug conviction on record, by having you complete FAFSA, they are getting statements with the possibilty of considerable penalty for lying and chances of getting caught as your info is run through certain federal check points.</p>
<p>We are in a similar financial situation as OP. My first is at MIT, and we had a hard time during the econ downturn in 2009. We filed FAFSA on MIT fin aid’s suggestion, and were offered $500 IF we sent in the whole tax form to the verification service, etc. NOT WORTH IT (our forms are over an inch thick).</p>
<p>Our son has gotten the unsubsidized federal loan every year WITHOUT filing FAFSA. Don’t know how that works. He wanted to build credit. </p>
<p>To be honest we are pretty much against loans period. Our house has been paid off for over 8 years. We owe nothing. We also automatically take the maximum in his retirement plan thing… not 401 whatever it is for independent people. We do our maximum regular ira even though it isn’t deductable. We also automatically deduct 2,500 that we label as retirement money even though the government doesn’t see it as such… So I don’t know that we will want to do loans… I’m not particularly worried about oldest. Middle one… perhaps. But I don’t know that I would allow him to take out any loans. If he doesn’t do well, then he can just work and pay for it on his own.</p>
<p>We have saved from the beginning of our marriage. We have pretty much chosen a status of living from the beginning of his practice and stayed there. As income has gone up we save it or give it away. We have cash accounts saved up for cars though we replace them slowly ( only got rid of our Honda accord after 20 years and replaced it with a Civic that my oldest could drive that had up to date safety features on it. He’ll be going to college without it and middle one will drive it until he goes off to college. After that… oldest might get to have it. We’ll see. Hubby is still driving his 10 year old truck. But we have money in the bank to buy a new car if we need to at some point.</p>
<p>I do not believe your son could get an unsubsidized Direct (Stafford) loan without completing the FAFSA. This is a federally funded loan that is offered to students who complete a FAFSA.</p>
<p>I’d agree with those that said file the FAFSA “just in case” for the future… unless you really don’t want to provide the info to the gov./college for privacy reasons. Once your taxes are completed, the FAFSA isn’t the horrible, complicated mess many make it out to be. You simply put income (from 1040) and assets on the online form. Not a big deal. In your case, just rough estimates would be fine as you aren’t getting anything this year anyhow.</p>
<p>Now, the likelyhood is you’ll never need or qualify for any aid. However, as was said, what IF something happens with merit aid, jobs, whatever? Not likely in your case but you never know I guess.</p>
<p>Bottom line is if it were me I’d file the FAFSA, but if you decided not to I wouldn’t fault you on that either (with the exception of college requiring it for the merit aid, of course).</p>
<p>One other point worth mentioning here… I read it on another thread… Some schools (or maybe all, not sure) will need this form on file freshman year, and subsequent years, if there is ANY chance that student applies for FA in later years? Can anyone confirm that? I had the impression that you may not be able to come back and take that loan in the fifth year, for example, if there wasn’t one on file?</p>
<p>Also, worth considering, since you obviously have a strong fiscal background… perhaps you’d want your kids to have some “skin in the game” early on so that they stay on track and learn firsthand how much you sacrificed to give them that gift?</p>
<p>There are some schools that will not allow you to apply for INSTITUTIONAL aid in subsequent years if you do not APPLY as an incoming freshman. I believe the schools I have heard about are Profile schools, or have their own application in addition to the FAFSA. If your school has this requirement, you would need to complete all required submissions for financial aid.</p>
<p>With regard to the FAFSA…that determines eligibility for federally funded aid. It can be completed in subsequent years for comsideration for federally funded aid (Pell grant, Direct loans, federal work study).</p>
<p>Actually yes, FAFSA will be a mess… let us see we have a farm with expenses, several K1’s that we never seem to get forms from until the beginning of April, tons of investment forms that dribble in… I normally have our part done at the end of this month, but we can never file until April 15th because our accountant is waiting for the K1 and other forms to make it official… </p>
<p>Plus if they flunk out or something then they will be on their own, working at McDonalds figuring out what they want to do. It is their choice and their life. We’ve made ours… No moving back home. They will have to figure it out. They won’t be able to take loans. I don’t think they would want to since they have been indoctrinated to pay cash.</p>
<p>That said, the boys are VERY responsible and just don’t spend money. We buy our shoes at Academy. They get 300 dollars or so for their birthday and for Christmas from relatives in the form of cash, itunes or whatever. That is all they spend… They don’t really go out much or feel the need to buy stuff. I’ll send oldest to youth camp with 20 dollars in spending money and he doesn’t spend it. He saves it for something better than candy bars they try to sell. If he wants a video game, he waits until the new version comes out so he can buy the old version for a song.</p>
<p>You are allowed to use last year’s (2011) 1040 to estimate this year’s FAFSA numbers with the will file option. If it is an inch thick, I agree that could be some work digging out all the relevant numbers. However, FAFSA isn’t that bad if you read each line carefully and do what it says, including using the help buttons for clarification. Part of people’s anxiety, I think, is treating it like a contest; where if you can get the “right” numbers you will hit the FA jackpot. In your case you know you are not getting any free money and your efc is likely to be over the cost of most colleges. Totalling your assets would be the big challange, since it supposed to be an instantaneous snap shot. However, since you are going to be so far over of the limit for qualifying for any gift aid, I doubt an error here or there would matter. Once your taxes are finally done in April, use the IRS retrieval tool to update the correct tax numbers and you are instantaneously done. Using the retrieval tool seems to verify your FAFSA without any more in depth probing of your assets. Next year all the demographic data transfers automatically to the new form and can be used to start sibling forms as well. It is much easier the second time. Congratulations on planning ahead so well for your kid’s education.</p>
<p>Your boys will be able to take loans if push comes to shove which is likely it won’t, and in some cases it’s the way to go. I know a number of wonderful kids who had some problems in college and had to figure it out. When they went back later, they did pay their own way with loans, work and little help from the parents and today are doing well. Some stumbles and even dowright falls can happen anytime in life, and it’s getting back up and going that counts in time. I think the parents are much happier too that their kids are working in jobs that have some financial security for their family–there are now grandkids in the mix, rather than at minimum wage even though the mistakes made in some attempts at college made it an expensive journey with an end further out than anticipated.</p>
<p>From what I can tell the Presidential Awards (the $17K you noted?) at Baylor do not require FAFSA as the award letter we got indicated it was required for “further” scholarship consideration. My understanding is that it is required for all other merit awards, but that is based on the wording in the award letter, not on confirmation from school.</p>
<p>I just completed the initial cut at the FAFSA and it was not bad, however, I did it based on last years tax returns which were easy to get to and had current info at hand as I had been gathering for this years financial files, much simpler than your situation.</p>
<p>If I understood correctly, you do want a FAFSA handy if you want to borrow money even if you don’t qualify for financial aid. If your EFC is quite high (more than the cost of the school) and you don’t qualify for PELL grants or low interest loans, then it should not matter if FAFSA is not accurate to the dollar.</p>