That is the point of need based aid. Maybe it wouldn’t be.
Not everybody wants need based aid.
I went to the financial aid seminar at our high school last night. There is a rather large foundation in our town that gives a lot of different scholarships. For some of them, especially those that consider need, you have to provide the student aid report from the FAFSA. Certainly not all places do that, but apparently the tentacles of the FAFSA reach places you wouldn’t think.
I’ve yet to see an “upside” in not completing the FAFSA and/or CSS.
If your tax return is complete it will take 15min, it actually gives you many of the line items to reference.
Others have reference the benefits of having it filed even if not currently accessing need based aid.
If you think you child’s SS# is not “out there” you are kidding yourself ( has he/she ever been to any medical facility (?), which routinely share/transfer patient info with insurers, 3rd parties, etc.).
Also, IMHO, pretty sure that by the time a kid is 17 they have a general understanding of their families economic situation. But, I guess every family can differ in this matter.
I never give my children’s (or my) SSN to doctor’s offices or medical facilities. I just leave it blank when asked. They have no right to it.
How is your insurance processed ? when you put your children on your family coverage a SS# was used at some point. anyway, medical office’s were just one example.
I’ll stick by my opinion the most individuals SS # are out there in cyber space. You put your dependent’s SS# on page one box 6 of the 1040 when you do your taxes… a federal form just like FAFSA.
The FAFSA is distributed potentially much more widely than a tax return. That being said, the federal government hasn’t proven to be any better than non-government entities in protecting electronic data.
That’s part of my point…your SS # is already out there.
Maybe, possibly even probably. But that doesn’t mean that more opportunities for someone to lose or steal the data won’t make any difference. I’m with twoinanddone; I don’t put SSNs on forms that medical providers (or anyone else) want me to fill out unless they can provide a compelling reason for doing so. My SSN may already be “out there,” but that doesn’t mean that the evil receptionist at the doctor’s office has access to it… unless I put it on the form that she handed me to fill out.
By law, you do not have to provide your SSN for medical identification so i dont. The medical office doesnt have to provide credit either (can require you to pay on the spot) but they don’t.
In the dark ages, schools, insurance companies, employers used to used SSN as ID numbers. Our grades were posted on the walls outside classrooms by SSN. That is now illegal. My insurers issue a member number, or some other way to identify us. If you want financial aid, yes, you have to provide a SSN. When my kids transferred high schools schools, they told me I had to provide it sometime before graduation. I said ‘I’ll wait,’ Never had to provide it.
One of the biggest sources of identity theft in Florida is from dental offices. Unsecured records, employees selling info to scammers, records tossed into trash bins? I just don’t provide the numbers.
The SSNs are out there, but I don’t have to add to the problem. I do not provide it just because a form requests it.
Each to his/her own. But, I still don’t think ID theft paranoia out weighs the benefits of taking a couple of minutes to fill out the FAFSA.
Do/will you or your kids work ? They will fill out a W9 form with their SS# (if they want the job) that goes to the feds and a copy sits in some folder at the place of employment, whether it is the local pizza shop, pool club or Goldman Sachs, the info is out there.
I hardly think that being smart about disclosing sensitive information qualifies as “paranoia.” And certainly, if there’s a benefit to filling out FAFSA (like getting free money), I don’t have a problem doing that. But this discussion was started with the question, “if I’m not getting anything out of completing FAFSA, is there any upside to not doing so?” And one very reasonable answer is “yes, you’re not putting private and sensitive information out there for even more people to steal, disclose or lose.”
Yeah, no kidding. But here’s the point that you don’t seem to be getting: just because the info is “out there” in one or several places, doesn’t mean that the risk of identity theft doesn’t increase if the info is made available in even more places.
Oh I get “the point” . But I look at risk vs reward in terms of the probability of a given outcome.
If you do not complete the FAFSA you will DEFINATELY NOT get FA funds (100% chance of occurrence) vs IF someone hacks your SS# from the feds AND successfully compromises your identity due to your filing FAFSA then you have a problem.(you pick the %, but if is way< 100%)
Enough time spent on this, have a good day.
Two things:
For a student who A) absolutely knows that he/she will not qualify for need-based financial, and B) does not want federal direct loans, and C) is not applying to schools that require the FAFSA for merit aid, and D) is not applying to a school that requires an incoming student to apply for financial aid in order to be eligible in future years, there is no reason – NONE – to complete the FAFSA. There is no possible reward, and definitely a risk.
Submission of the FAFSA does not just expose SSNs, and private financial information, to possible federal government compromise. Multiply the risk by the number of schools to which the information is also provided.
I am unclear in why you would be willing to accept merit aid from a college, but not need based aid. Both are nothing more than a price break, just for different reasons.
Much need based aid is loans, and must be repaid. Merit aid is nice to get from a school no matter what your income…
@s3, I’m just very selective about which forms I fill out with the SSNs. For FAFSA, sure, it’s required and there is a benefit to me to get financial aid. At the dentist’s office, there have been 4 ‘insurance coordinators’ in the 2 years I’ve been trying to get a claim paid, plus I’ve spoken to a dozen other receptionists and assistants in the office. They have access to my name, address, employer, insurer. These people come and go. They aren’t bonded, they aren’t even vetted. They don’t need my SSN.
My daughter played hockey for years. Every year they’d have me fill out a form and ask for a SSN and a copy of the birth certificate. The request for the SSN was because some teams (not at her level) would travel to Canada and in the olden days that’s all they needed. Now they would need a lot more, a passport or other documents so having the SSN has no purpose. Form is old. I can assure you more than half the parents just filled it in without questioning it. These forms and birth certificates were in unsecured file cabinets or in coach’s binders to show at tournaments, easy to steal the info. Our grade school office was broken into. Files full of kids names and birthdates, all with perfect credit records (kids’ information is like gold). No need for them to provide the thieves with their SSNs too. No need for a grade school to have the SSN.
@mom2collegekids – “We didn’t fill out FAFSA because we wouldn’t qualify and we were chasing big merit”
Did you think that you got big merit because you didn’t fill out the FASFA and wouldn’t have gotten it if you had filled out the FASFA? Appreciate any insight as we are in a similar situation – won’t qualify for financial aid and chasing merit.
I’m sort of in the situation that Belknap described above – no possible way my son will get need based aid, no intention of getting loans, doesn’t really have the stats to get any (or any meaningful) merit based aid at colleges of choice, etc. But one twist I’ve read about elsewhere that had me thinking about completing the FAFSA is the notion of using the FAFSA disclosure as a potential hook to show colleges (where my son might be on the bubble for admission) that he is indeed a full pay (out-of-state) applicant. In other words, instead of merely checking the box to indicate that he will not be seeking need based aid, perhaps it might help his chances if the colleges actually see my very high income and very substantial assets. Perhaps they might think of me as even a potential donor or benefactor in the future. But then I’ve also read that admissions personnel might actually just get ticked off at having to process a FAFSA form where it is so obvious that no need based aid would be forthcoming. So, I began work on the form, but then I just had a growing aversion to giving the government (especially in the shape it’s in) all of my personal financial information. The government obviously already has my SSN and my tax returns, but not information on my assets, investments, etc. So I killed it. But I’m curious what the knowledgeable folks here on CC think about the potential hook aspect…(maybe it’s been covered in another thread, I’m fairly new here).
Some merit has a need component, but most merit has nothing to do with need, so completing the FAFSA doesn’t matter. The merit my daughter received, based entirely on gpa/scores/class rank, I’d consider ‘big’ (1/2 tuition) and did not require the FAFSA but I did fill it out (and at that time qualified for no need based aid, not even subsidized loans or work study).
@lakeviking Your post was very intriguing. Using a FAFSA to prove to a school that you really do have the income/funds to be full-pay. Because, parallel to that, I have wondered if college adcoms ever worry that applicants who do not check the fin aid box really do not have enough money to be full-pay for 4 years, and are less likely to admit. Do you recall there you read that?