Twoinanddone 
provided good info on the separation of powers and responsibilities between admissions and finaid offices.
We are full pay, not counting work study dollars, at the realistic targets based on the NPC of those schools on MyinTuition.
S24 is not looking at Ivies or even T-30s schools.
I’ve read Selingo’s book and listened to him and Lieber give talks and discussions. They are both great resources on this subject.
Actually, a lot more than 100 colleges are need-blind for admission. For example, there are over 100 community colleges in California, all of which are need-blind for (open) admission. Lots of other colleges have stats-only admission, where financial information plays no role.
What happens when a kid has stellar stats and is admitted into a need blind school with a COA of $93K/year. I did not file fafsa/css and can only pay $30K. Will the school chip in $63k in grants and scholarships? Can it say here is $30K you do not have to pay back, here is $3k work study subsidy and the rest are loans on you, good luck? or we just did not think this through and applied to a school way out of our financial ability to pay to attend.
I believe that work-study is only offered to students who receive need-based financial aid. But your student can always get a job that isn’t work-study.
The amount of merit they offer is based on their budget and how badly they want your student to enroll. If it’s a full-ride scholarship or full-tuition scholarship or maybe a 10k scholarship. The rest would be loans.
Edited to add that the higher scholarships are usually for schools where your student’s stats are well above the school’s average and their accepting the offer will help the school “rise” in the rankings game.
Depends on the stats. We are a donut hole family, my kids with 33/34 act and one B only applied to safety/matches because $35,000 a year was the max. Well, one applied to Villanova and was actually offered work study but there was no way to pay the rest (5 kids, single income). Very selective schools are for the wealthy, hooked, or very high stats lower income (my kids didn’t have the stats for Princeton).
I thought your son is a junior? How have they applied anywhere yet?
If you do not file the financial aid forms that the college wants to see, then the college will not offer any need-based aid to you.
If the college offers merit scholarships, and the student is particularly attractive to the college, then the college may add a merit scholarship to its admission offer.
The college will then assume that if the student attends, the student and parents (and possibly outside scholarships if the student gets any) will pay the list price (minus any college provided merit scholarships).
Exactly! Need-blind doesn’t matter if the OP doesn’t file the financial aid forms.
Need-blind refers to whether financial need (as determined by the college) affects whether the student will be admitted. It does not say anything about how much financial aid the college will give to a student who completes the financial aid forms needed by the college.
A students who applies without filling in any financial aid forms will be assumed to be paying list price and may have an admission advantage at the minority of colleges that are need-aware, but will obviously not get any need-based financial aid if admitted.
But will a student who doesn’t fill out financial aid forms get any kind of a boost at a need-blind college ?
Instead of just using MyIntuition to check an NPC, please use each school’s NPC to check and see what numbers you get from them directly.
If you think there is any chance you might qualify for need based aid, fill out the FAFSA forms and the CSS forms. If you aren’t sure - fill out the FAFSA. If FAFSA ends up higher than COA at every school, then there probably isn’t a good reason to fill out CSS.
But, if you can only spend $30k a year, you need to make sure the schools your child applies to can get to $30k for your family through the merit they offer, or a combination of merit and need based aid that you would qualify for. If you don’t qualify for need based aid anywhere - make sure the schools do actually offer merit opportunities that get you to your budget number. It doesn’t help at all to get into a school you can’t afford. Say the $93k school in your hypothetical only offers up to $50k merit (top award). If you can only pay $30k - drop that school from consideration - you won’t ever be able to afford it even if your child get top merit.
There should not be an advantage (or disadvantage) in admissions for not doing financial aid forms at a need-blind college that is true to its claim.
But note that need-blind colleges often to use correlates of need in admissions, even though that may not exactly proxy financial aid need. For example, legacy status tends to correlate to less financial aid need, while first-generation-to-college status tends to correlate to more financial aid need, even though there are some needy legacies and non-needy first-generation-to-college students.
No. If you want any work study, federal loans, Pell grants, SEOG, etc., you HAVE to file FAFSA. How do you expect them to determine that your child needs $63K in financial aid that you can’t pay, but that you can pay $30k if you don’t fill out the FAFSA? FAFSA stands for Free APPLICATION for Student Aid. It’s the application you need to fill out.
A school can give its own aid using any forms it wants to, but most require either FAFSA or CSS or both. They have formulas to award need based aid.
Some schools will award merit without a financial aid application, but others even require that you files a FAFSA to get it, because they want their aid to be ‘last dollar’ and don’t want you to skip getting federal aid like PELL grants if you qualify.
Some schools use the FAFSA as a verification that the student is eligible to receive certain types of aid. Is the student a citizen, for example if there are state merit or need based programs that require citizenship.
No, you are required to fill out the FAFSA if you want federal aid (loans, grants, work study).
Also, the FAFSA isn’t that difficult to fill out. The CSS profile can be somewhat more cumbersome.
**Aha, this helps, thanks. Need-based does not mean what I thought it meant.
We have a high achieving S24 but also set a budget for what we are willing to spend. Applying need based is probably not the route to go for us.
The consensus is completing fafsa is worth the time and effort even if the results may be underwhelming.
@MMRose, yes he is a junior, no we have not yet applied to any schools. We have not even left the house to visit the schools he wants to see in Virginia and DC😁 shooting for July 4th week to get out there for official visits.
It’s need blind, not need based…will try to remember it
Need-blind admissions is helpful to students whose FAFSA and/or CSS profile shows that they have financial need. It means that the college won’t say “oh this student has high need and won’t be able to afford to attend so we won’t admit them.” It doesn’t help full-pay students (in fact the opposite may be true. A full-pay student may have an advantage at a need-aware school as they may say “aha, this student can afford to attend here so let’s give them an admissions boost.”)
Now a meets-full-need school is one that guarantees to meet full financial need if the student is accepted. But that means filling out the FAFSA and/or css profile and “full need” is as the college defines it, NOT as the family defines it. Need-based aid is often much less than the family thinks it can afford.
Edited to add: And then there are colleges that are not meets-full need and they will award even less financial aid than they calculate is needed and the family has to take loans to pay for the gap.
Since you say the NPC shows that you are full pay and you have a 30k budget, your son will need to apply to colleges where he has a chance of very good merit money or possibly apply to Canadian colleges which are less expensive (I’ve mentioned McGill on the past).
And if you decide you want the federally funded loan, you can fill out the FAFSA during the academic year.