<p>just a quick note to let parents of boys know what's happening. last year, i filled out a fafsa for my son, a freshman. one of the questions was do you want to register your son for selective service. apparently you cannot get financial aid without doing this. as i had fully intended to register him anyway once he turned 18, i checked the box. thought nothing of it as this was last year, but he was only 17 at the time.</p>
<p>recently received a threatening letter in the mail saying he never registered. just got off the phone with selective service and they admitted the fafsa form is very misleading. if you have a son who has not turned 18 yet, checking the box to register merely sends his name in to selective service. THEY DO NOT REGISTER THEM! </p>
<p>make sure you register once they turn 18 or you will be in the same boat as us. no harm done but with the amount of mail people get, it could have easily been missed.</p>
<p>Isn't there some form of correspondence back to the person after they're actually registered with the selective service? It seems that there should be.</p>
<p>I believe that if the student is already 18 and you check that box on FAFSA, then they do send the info to the Selective Service and are registered. That is how it worked for my son, who was still 17 when I completed FAFSA in advance of his freshman year, but 18 and unregistered when we completed the next year's forms. In fact he had just received the notice from SSS last February that he wasn't registered (I was surprised, but he was aware that he wasn't registered), and so checked the box on the FAFSA assuming that that would be more expeditious than waiting for S1 to do it on his own. The confirmation from SSS arrived promptly afterwards.</p>
<p>In fact, its MUCH easier to use the online form than to fill out a FAFSA.... or register to vote. The only info that needs to be provided is name, address, social security number & date of birth - then "submit" ... and that's it. And the form can be completed by any male who is at least 17 months, 3 years old.... no waiting.</p>
<p>And moms: please have your sons complete the form on their own. I understand the temptation to do it for your kid -- I understand that we moms (or dads) end up filling out the FAFSA because it asks for all kinds of confusing financial information that means we have to pull out our tax returns and pay stubs and bank statements to figure it all out -- but registering with the Secret Service is a very serious, significant act. Your son may have mixed feelings -- he might feel resentful that he has to it or he may feel pride in his responsibility as a citizen -- but either way this is the first act and expression of manhood that our government imposes on our young men. And the potential consequences are dire, if and when a draft is ever reactivated. So basically if your son is old enough to put his life on the line for his country, he ought to be old enough to fill out the online form by himself. </p>
<p>calmom, thanks for the link. I forwarded it to my 18 year old and he registered as soon as he received it. He registered to vote in high school when he was 17 so he didn't check the box that would have also registered him for selective service.</p>
<p>Just as the Wall Street/Finacial System bailout passed over the firm opposition of 2/3 of Americans, so will the draft be re-instated despite the howling protests of the majority of Americans.</p>
<p>^At least with the financial bailout, there has been argument for it--what is the argument for the draft?</p>
<p>With regard to Selective service/draft-is there some sort of rule regarding sending only children/son to war should draft be reinstated? Have had this discussion with several people and all seem to have different opinions based on previous wars. I suppose that if draft were reinstated there could be certain conditions passed to update current draft rules on the books. Just wondering...</p>
<p>It isn't a big nothing if you want to get financial aid. There have been posts from adult men in their 20s who were trying to go back to school and could not get financial aid because they didn't register when they were 18.</p>
<p>It is very easy to check whether someone has registered on that web site as well. We checked the FAFSA box (S was already 18), and I thought we received confirmation in the mail, but I couldn't find the form. Since I'm obsessive about filing things like that, I was a bit worried that I had imagined it. But I went to the website and was able to verify that he was indeed registered.</p>
<p>My son has received Stafford loans for years. I'm assuming he would not have been able to take those out if he had NOT been registered for the Selective Service...right?</p>