New to this forum.
If we have one kid in a public school and one in a private school at the same time. Due to our high EFC, the one at public school won’t receive any financial aids. Does that mean we can just submit FAFSA (and CSS) for the one at private school? Do I have to submit FAFSA for both of them?
Thanks in advance!
If your student wants to take out the $5,500 Federal Direct Student Loan you do have to file FAFSA.
You don’t have to submit anything for the student at the public school (or any school) but sometimes there are benefits. During covid, some schools gave all students who had submitted a FAFSA, whether or not they’d received aid, a ‘rebate’ of the federal money the school had received. Some schools have scholarships that require the FAFSA. As mentioned above, there is the student loan. And sometimes, even if you don’t qualify for a Pell grant, the student might be able to qualify for work study (school defines who is qualified and for how much).
Thank you. We will keep that in mind.
Very useful information. Thank you!
If you aren’t interested in the $5500 loan, then check with the school to see if FAFSA is required. Most colleges that my daughter applied to the FAFSA was not required. I think it’s best to do the FAFSA and then pick and choose which schools you want to send it to. I was a tad concerned that our high EFC could affect the amount of merit money my kid received even though schools say merit is not based on your income.
In the schools my kids applied to and attended, merit aid was awarded by admissions office (or their major departments) and FA was awarded by the FA office. The two offices didn’t know what the other was doing. One exception was when the awards from the departments, including athletic aid ‘came in’ to FA, the need based FA might have been adjusted, but not the other way around. D’s FA office applied the awards in the order most beneficial to her - merit first as some could only be used for tuition, then FA and finally loans. If anything left over, they gave her a refund. If anything owed, I paid it.
Check with your school.
For Purdue,
To be considered for these scholarships and grants, you must file a FAFSA by the University’s priority filing date,
Many Purdue colleges have need- and merit-based scholarships they award to students admitted to their programs. To be considered:
Submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to Purdue West Lafayette by Dec. 15.
This is on the page listing the automatic National Merit scholarship and all merit scholarships.
Merit awards should not be affected by income/EFC, pretty much by definition. Whether a school actual does this, or one believes a school’s statement that it does this - YMMV, I suppose.
Some schools/states require the FAFSA to be filed for merit only because they want the applicant to prove they are an eligible citizen/status. It is a way to require SSN and status without the school having to do the background check. They don’t really care what the EFC is.
Years ago Florida required the FAFSA for the Bright Futures award but no longer does so (and no longer requires citizenship/legal status). I think a lot of the federal government scholarships require FAFSA just to establish status.
We didn’t qualify for any federal funds and weren’t interested in loans. Did not fill out FAFSA and still received generous merit aid offers. If you’re unsure, check with each individual school.
I guess I’m missing. If you are doing it for the private school, since you can submit ten at once why not just send into the public?
My daughter applied to 21 and we submitted to all 21.
Our EFC was more than any school’s C OF a.
Some schools reward u. Chicago waived the app fee if you apply. Others have merit conditioned on FAFSA even though that sounds contrary.
But if you’ve done it for one submit to all. Completing it is 99.9%. Adding a school to the list is .1% of the work.
Each student needs their own FAFSA. OP asked if they have to do one for the student attending the public college.
ohhhhh - i misread - i thought they were saying the student was applying to a public and private.
ok - then yes they should do -but they can basically duplicate the info from the first - so it will be relatively easy to do with minor differences.
Bottom line is - it can’t hurt you - it can only help you - well, unless you apply to a school that then sends you a letter that they lost your data (like Boulder).
So here’s another thing - my daughter (a freshman) just sent us, excitedly, that she got $300 for the CARES act…a note came from the president of her college.
I said to my wife - tell our son - maybe he gets something too. He’s a Junior.
She said no - she got because we filled out the FAFSA (as it’s her first year). No FAFSA, no $300.
Not sure what it’s for - I didn’t read the note - but some sort of federal stimulus I get.
All colleges received federal funds to distribute how they saw fit to due to the financial impact of covid. One if my kids just got $500, the other 2 at college got nothing.
gotcha - my wife just said because one we did the FAFSA, one we didn’t.
Had I known - I’d have done for my Junior too.
Did you do the FAFSA? I assume so.
I file the FAFSA just because. DD’s college did give out their federal funds according to EFC. If the students did not have a FAFSA on file, they gave the smallest amount. DD would have gotten the same amount either way, because we were just barely over the line for the smallest payout, but I know there would have been kids that would have qualified for more federal funds but not for institutional aid, so it benefitted them to have filed FAFSA. I hear there is going to be another payout from her school next month.
So my take is it doesn’t hurt.
This is the benefit I mentioned above. Since it is federal aid, it can only go to students the school can qualify and the easiest way to do that is using the FAFSA since only qualified students (citizens, resident aliens) can file it, it requires a SSN and verification with an FSA ID. It is just an easy way for the schools to verify the student is eligible.
Schools also can loosen the requirements for work study if they have extra funds available, so even students with high EFCs get approved.
I see - I assume it’s not based on EFC because ours is 2.5 x the EFC. I wish I had filed for my son. Maybe i’ll file for both next year.
Each college does it differently, as well.