This discussion was created from comments split from: Do you intend to apply for need-based financial aid?. Please don't reply to post that are years old; start a new thread if you want to ask a current question.
<p>Question…if I said “no” to are you applying for need-based financial aid on the common app, can I still fill out FAFSA?</p>
<p>You must if you want Stafford Loans, so yes, you ‘can’.</p>
<p>But why would you want to? If you need loans to make college affordable, you shouldn’t have said “no” to applying for need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Unless: the school requires FAFSA to be eligible for merit money, or the school requires FAFSA during the application process in order to be eligible for institutional FA later in college.</p>
<p>Yes, you can, and that’s what we did. We won’t qualify for need-based aid, so my D checked the ‘no’ box. But I want her to take out the Federal loans so she has some skin in the game, so she submitted FAFSA. For CSS Profile schools, we ignored it.</p>
<p>If you only want federal student loans, then you can still say “no” to FA. That’s not the same thing as asking for institutional aid which that question really is dealing with.</p>