We completed FAFSA last week for HS senior D. She received a letter today from her last-choice, not interested school asking us to resubmit the FAFSA with their school code listed first. Letter states: “In order to receive funding at Kettering Univ. from State of Michigan, you must list our school code first on your FAFSA. Currently we are not listed as your first school choice and this may result in a loss of eligibility for the Michigan Competitive Scholarship or Michigan Tuition Grant. This change only needs to be made if you wish to attend Kettering University.”
She is not interested in this school, but it has me wondering why they would send out such a letter. Will other schools care about the order? We are Michigan residents and she’s been accepted at other in-state schools. I don’t expect that we will qualify (financially) for either state scholarship/grant specifically listed in the letter. What do we do if the schools she is really interested in send out something similar?
There are some states that ask that their instate schools be listed first. If she has any interest, just amend your FAFSA. Resubmit with that school at the top.
I find it interesting that Kettering makes the assumption that the order of the school listing on FAFSA equates to choice ranking.
There are some states that ask that their instate schools be listed first. If she has any interest, just amend your FAFSA. Resubmit with that school at the top.
Kettering was listed 4th on her list of 6 schools. The first 4 schools are all Michigan (in state) schools. The last 2 schools are out of state.
The first time I heard that story, I thought it was just a silly rumor or an urban legend scare story. It boggles my mind that something so seemingly childish is an actual rule implemented and enforced by colleges. I’ve even seen other threads where people suggest putting the schools alphabetically so that the people reviewing the forms won’t get any ideas.
The other thing…you can resubmit…and put only Kettering on the resubmit list.
I mean really…how silly. Folks could submit one school at a time of they wanted to…and then each school would be on top!
We did them alphabetically but I guess we don’t live in one of the states where that matters for aid.
The funny part is that they must know that people can do this since the OP received a letter basically telling her to resubmit with their school on top. They can’t possibly still think that it indicates anything about the student’s preferences. It just seems so needy and jealous.
@kelsmom might have an idea.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mistudentaid/MTGFactSheet_452035_7.pdf
The Michigan Tuition Grant is a state grant for attending non-public colleges it appears.
Same quote is in the doc for the Michigan Competitive Scholarships.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mistudentaid/MCSFactSheet_452031_7.pdf
It doesn’t seem you are shut out of the awards if you don’t attend the school listed first on fafsa, just that you have to notify them that you chose another school.
I’m sure there’s a great reason for it, but it just seems silly from an outsider’s ignorant POV.
This is true for Caifornia. Our private school HS counselor even told its Senior students. D had applied to more than 10 schools, so when we submitted the FAFSA with the first 10, the first choice school we had to designate was a California college (UC Berkeley) in order to be eligible for maximum aid for any of the California colleges she had applied to. Then we had to go back in to FAFSA online to do a correction to add the other schools. We had to remove the first six schools listed and replace them with the other schools that didn’t fit on the first FAFSA processed. Even in the second round of schools, we had to make sure the first choice school listed was again a California college. As a parent, it’s interesting that a specific school was asking for a FAFSA correction to be placed in the first position instead of at a different position so that the student would be eligible for maximum state aid funds.
It would make sense though if out of the 10 schools listed by @MIMomma’s daughter, only one of them was a college located in Michigan. Then I could understand why Kettering University is requesting the position change on the FAFSA. But even if there is more than one Michigan-state college in that bunch of 10 schools but none of them were listed in the first position upon submittal, then I could also understand why one of those Michigan-state colleges would initiate the contact to be placed in the 1st code position. Although any of those Michigan-state colleges could have requested that same correction once they started processing the apps, Kettering University just happened to review their FAFSA apps. earlier than the other colleges. The point being that a Michigan-state college had to be listed in the first code position. And once the other colleges get the corected FAFSA version, if they happen to be a Michigan-state school as well, then there would be no need to request for their school to be listed first since there was one already designated.
Of course, this theory is out the window if even after placing Kettering first, another Michigan-state school requests to be placed also in that first code position occupied by Kettering. Regardless, listing the college that your daughter is least interested in attending as the first listed college does not translate to mean that is her first choice college to attend. From what I’ve learned from different sources (including an insider source at a top university), usually the top schools you are interested in should really go somewhere below the first position anyway–either in the second or third position up through the middle positions but in a random order (so that colleges are guessing as to which school you really want to attend). For example, do an east coast school, then a west coast school, then another east coast school, then throw in a mid-west school, public or private, etc., but placing your actual top choices within the middle code positions and not toward the bottom third. This is just my random strategy. We will see if this actualy works once we get the financial aid award letters from all the colleges my daughter applied to. My mind is just mush after just completing the doozy CSS PROFILE application. If you think the FAFSA
Thanks for all the info. I think I understand it a little more now. Since the Michigan Tuition Grant is for private schools only, and the state’s department (SSG - Student Scholarships & Grants) only looks at the first school listed on the FAFSA when deciding on aid (!), to be considered for that particular grant, we have to list a private MI school first to be considered for the Michigan Tuition Grant. I don’t believe we will qualify financially for the grant, but I guess I’ll comply. Hopefully no other school will care if we list Kettering first.
If another school cares…then resubmit…and list that school first…after the Kettering one is processed.
Or…just submit to Kettering on this submission. You don’t have to list your other schools at all.
If you need to do another school first…submit only to that school.
I wonder how that works though. Which fafsa submission is SSG looking at and if there are multiple fafsa submissions with different schools listed first how does SSG select one to use?
One more reason it’s way past time for FAFSA to stop showing the order of schools to all the schools…
I’m suggesting submitting only ONE school. Don’t resubmit to all of them. Just resubmit to Kettering.
ETA…AD, I see what you mean. But really…I’m not sure I understand this whole thing. Surely colleges know that students apply to multiple schools, and that some kids just don’t have an order of preference…yet.
Please explain to me why it would be so essential to need to see your school listed first? Yes, I know it’s their rule…but why??
It’s the second commandment – Thou shalt have no other universities before Me.
I have never heard of such a thing. It sounds ridiculous. The ultimate safe thing to do is list one school on FAFSA, submit, wait for it to process, move to the next school, ad nauseum. Terrible way to play the game.
Merged Threads