Sending in deposit before FAFSA?

I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to send in your deposit before a financial aid decision is made, because they’ll see that you’ve already made your decision and figure they don’t need to give you any aid. Is that true? My daughter will be going to a PA state school, and we likely won’t qualify for much, if anything. But will it make our chances even less by sending in her acceptance now?

Is there any reason for sending the enrollment deposit now? Why not just wait?

Do you know what your FAFSA EFC will be?

I’m going to call the school to be sure there isn’t some advantage such as a better choice of dorm. I just wondered if it really mattered in terms of financial aid.

It’s a PA state school. PA schools are lousy with aid, typically only giving fed aid as need-based aid.

Do this…run the NPC on the school’s website and see what the results are. .

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We can afford $25,000 a year, but $20,000 would be better.

1460 SAT, 2.86 GPA UW.
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I can almost guarantee that you won’t get any aid from that PA state school. Your EFC is too high …your D will get offered a $5500 loan.

If you aren’t doing a loan, then don’t even bother with FAFSA.

A subsidized or unsubsudized loan, do you think?

Sans…not enough information to help you. We don’t know your financial need. If you don’t have financial need, you can’t get a subsidized loan.

You might want to inquire whether the school takes housing deposits…this is what usually is the the deposit for getting in the queue for on campus housing. In some cases, the enrollment deposit is a whole other thing.

My kid almost sent in a housing deposit to a school…but then decided to not attend that school. If it had still been in the running, she would have sent her housing deposit in very early…but NOT an enrollment deposit. The housing deposit was refundable.

If your EFC is higher than the COA of the school, then you can’t get a sub loan. Either way, it has nothing to do with when you deposit.