<p>If anyone has any advice- I would love to hear it.</p>
<p>On the Common App, we had my DD check the box that yes, we would request need aid. After submitting the fafsa, the results came back that we would not qualify for any at all. (It is possible this will change in a couple years when the next kid is in school).</p>
<p>So my question is - is it worth it to finish submitting all the financial documents, including 2009, 2010 tax returns, IDOCs, W2s, etc.? Or should we send a note to the colleges saying that we are not requesting need aid after all?</p>
<p>I think the possible benefits of finishing the need aid request (or filing it in the first place) are: Maybe letting the college know that we are hoping for some kind of aid (like merit) for our daughter to attend, the possibility that our daughter is a desirable enough student that she may get some small amount of need aid anyway, and that we may need to request aid every year if we want aid when the next child is also in college.</p>
<p>The negatives might be: that submitting the documents is useless and that it is harder for a student to be accepted at some schools if need aid is requested.</p>
<p>Stressn, since this is a Profile school, I would absolutely continue with the process. Although your FAFSA EFC is high, sometimes the additional information that comes to light through the expanded Profile questions can be helpful in securing institutional aid. At this point, you’ve already submitted the profile so sending in the docs should be easy. As you know, some schools will not consider a student for aid later on if they don’t apply freshman year…you’ll want to find out directly from the school(s) what effect, if any, it will have on future years if you decide not to complete the process this year.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If the institution determines that your child does not qualify for need-based aid by their standards, your child won’t get any, and applying for it won’t affect your child’s chance of admissions.</p></li>
<li><p>Any student who files the FAFSA automatically qualifies for Stafford Loans. If your family EFC is too high for subsidized Staffords, your child can still take out un-subsidized Stafford loans.</p></li>
<li><p>Some institutions will not consider your child for financial aid in future years, even if your family’s situation changes, if your child does not apply this year. Since you expect to have two children in college in future years, you know for certain that your situation will change. </p></li>
<li><p>Some institutions require that the financial aid application be on file in order for a student to be considered for merit aid.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Better safe than sorry. If you file the FAFSA, CSS and other required paperwork you have at least established a base. If for some unforseen reason there is a significant change in your personal situation, you have an established basebline that the schools can compare against when you submit updated information. So please check that box as there are other benefits as other posters have indicated.</p>
<p>No, don’t ask for aid if you are not going to get much aid. I still maintain in today’s environment not needing aid is a hook. Every private school counselor and counselor for hire are all advising their students as such. I would not show my financial to anyone unless I know there is a substantial benefit.</p>
<p>We opted NOT to submit any financial info as our FAFSA calculator that we tried out in advance showed that we would NOT be eligible for any aid. We did NOT plan to take out any educational loans or have our kiddos take out any either. We felt that filling out extra paperwork and providing financial information when we didn’t expect to be able to receive anything weighed against the risk/benefit. Our S was able to get great merit aid anyway and we were very grateful. </p>
<p>We do not have any regrets for not sending in financial info. We are happy we did not twist ourselves into knots trying to get the many required docs turned in. We know someone who did work hard to get all the docs turned in & was able to get work study and various loans. She did not use any of those options and I don’t believe she submitted docs for any other years.</p>
<p>We know many other folks who have submitted docs and are glad they did for many of the reasons set forth above. A lot depends on what you are willing to submit and how easy/difficult it is for you to complete all the paperwork and what your crystal ball shows about what may or may not be happening for your family in the future.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you’re asking about this now…after she already DID check the box and you’ve already filed FAFSA and CSS. All you can do at this point is either finishing submitting the IDOC/verifications, if required, or notify admissions and financial aid that you no longer wish to be considered for aid, other than federal student loans. If you simply don’t submit, your D will receive endless requests/notifications that her required docs are not complete! I think at this point it would be clear that she’s a “no-need” or “low need” kid so any school that is need aware will likely take note of that fact!</p>
<p>At Loyola Marymount University in LA, they told us that we had to complete FAid docs for our kid to be considered for merit awards. They also told us he likely would NOT qualify since he had too low a class rank for their standards. S was not interested in attending in any case so we never pursued further.</p>
<p>We never submitted any FAid docs and S received several very generous wholly merit awards (ranging from half to full tuition) from several different Us.</p>