Has anyone here hired a professional to fill out all your financial aid and loan forms? My son is applying to schools that use both fafsa and CSS and we will most likely be taking loans as well. They charge $500. Not sure if it’s worth it but this is our first kid going to college. Any advice?
The hardest part is gathering all the information. The forms are straight forward with instructions. Ask here if you have questions. No need to pay someone else to enter the information you gathered.
That is a total rip-off. Get your tax return and bank statements. You’ll have both firms completed in an hour or less!
I agree $500 is a total rip off. But the first time filling out the paperwork can be confusing. I would check at your local community college to see if they have any free resources for the public.
Our state has a public program (specific to our state) with several offices throughout the state that will fill out the FAFSA with you at no charge. I utilized them the first time around because I had some specific questions unique to our situation. I would imagine other states have a similar program.
You have to fill out the FAFSA every year, so you might as well learn how to do it.
These forms are not hard to complete. The hardest part (as noted) is gathering the information so you can sit down and complete the forms. Really…it doesn’t take a long time to do the FAFSA at all. The Profile takes a teeny bit longer, but that’s because it asks for more information.
If you are filling out the 2019-2020 FAFSA, you will need:
One parent and the student will need a FSA ID number…which you can apply for now. This is how you will electronically sign the FAFSA form and submit online. Don’t give this to anyone else!
AND
- 2017 tax return because that is the tax year for info you will be providing.
- Balances for any assets...these are reported as of the day you file, but should be able to be accessed online easily.
- Any equity you have in real estate other than your primary residence (for the FAFSA which doesn’t ask for primary residence).
- Rental or business income IF that applies.
And added to that for the Profile…
- The equity in your primary residence
- Any info on supplemental questions...like some colleges ask for car values, for example.
NOTE…the good thing about both forms…there is a “help me” sort of box that helps you know what the question means.
And both have phone and online chat helplines. FREE.
You will need income and asset information for both the student and parents.
Are you divorced…remarried? If not, I won’t explain the different info.
Thanks everyone. After speaking to a good friend whose daughter just graduated college she also confirmed there’s no need to pay anyone. So I will save our $500.
@thumper1 I am not divorced or remarried. Although I may be by the time this whole process is over lol. Thank you for all the info!
you’ll do fine! it’s much easier than taxes; since you have those finished, filling out the FAFSA is easy. And, it’s not like taxes where you pay someone to know the codes and figure out how to best do it; here there’s no manipulation. ONE small piece of advice - check over everything carefully before submitting. once you submit, it takes awhile to change anything. (i was in a hurry with my kiddo, skipped the parents income section somehow, submitted it, realized it, but then had to wait weeks to change, then was asked be verified, all because i was in a hurry.)
@bgbg4us Thank you that makes me feel better. We do our own taxes so I figured this can’t be much different.
The one small thing that always irks me is that the each parent’s income has to be entered separately. On the completed tax forms, it’s combined if you file jointly. So we have to dig out our W2’s for that.
But that’s quite minor. If you do your own taxes, FAFSA is not a big deal. CSS is a bit more work but probably still less time consuming than filing taxes.
FAFSA is easy to complete, particularly now that there is so much skip logic. CSS is harder, I think, but as others have pointed out, it is the information gathering that is hard. You are the one who has to do that part whether you pay someone or not … and once you gather the information, it is relatively easy to complete the form.
Although I do agree with the opinions above, it doesn’t mean that no one would benefit from hiring someone. I am a do-it-yourself type of person. To me, a great first step is to read a book about the process. I read a book called “Paying for College without Going Broke”. Sure, I think filling out the forms is straight forward. What isn’t so straight forward is if it is worth it to take any actions to put you in the best position to get as much aid as possible. For example, as mentioned above, you report your current assets on the day you submit the form. Well, one thing I like to do is to make sure those assets are as low as possible. I have 2 kids in college. Paying their Spring bills before submitting these applications could lower the assets by a decent amount. I don’t think it takes too much time to research this stuff, but I imagine some people would benefit from hiring someone to suggest such things. If the person is just filling out the forms, not worth it for most. If they give some good advice, taking into consideration the schools being applied to and your specific financial situation, it could be worth it if you don’t want to do the leg work. I do prefer to just ask questions to people here.
So when filling out the form and entering how much you have in savings and such, do they actually check your bank statements for verification?
A school might ask to you to verify the information. To verify, you’d provide copies of bank statements, W2s, tax forms.
What I do is take a screen shot of the information as I fill it out.
If you use a paid service, the information is going to be out of date when it’s filed. It may only be a few days or a month, but it’s unlikely the service will file on the same day you give them the info, and then there must be some way for the parent and child to sign and submit.
The service is also offered by TaxAct and TurboTax. The programs still need the parent to provide the additional info about assets, family members in the home, etc.
@allieandjoe why are you even asking this? You are supposed to be honest when filling out these forms.
But to answer…yes, some schools might ask for bank statements. We had a school that did…we were selected for verification, and didn’t even qualify for need based aid…just wanted the Direct Loan.
You won’t have to worry that a school might ask for bank statements, or any other documentation for that matter, if you are honest when you complete the forms.
@thumper1 I wouldn’t assume someone is asking because they are not going to be honest. It could be simple curiosity or it could be so they know whether to save those specific statements.
On the day ai file, I print out a screen shot of my accounts in case anyone should ask. Two kids and 8 FA submissions later, no one ever did.
Yes thank you @ClaremontMom. I was just curious because as I mentioned this is my first go round.