<p>I did comment on the merit aid/FAFSA issue. My son applied to about 10 schools.
NONE required FAFSA to apply for merit aid (most don’t even ask you to apply for merit aid,
they just consider you regardless as part of recruiting students).
I have still not filed FAFSA, and he got multiple merit scholarship offers.</p>
<p>There was a public school that was requiring FAFSA after awarding a merit based scholarship,
so while it’s required, it’s clearly not part of the decision process, and I have 2 months after the
scholarship announcement, to file FAFSA. In other cases he got merit aid, not required
before nor after the award of merit aid. </p>
<p>So the answer is, check with each school and be aware of their own policy.
Also, if any school says they need to see FAFSA to make merit scholarship decisions,
I would say they want needy honor students, not just honor students, and you
are better off looking at other schools in your situation. Some schools have
admitted to making need-aware admission decisions, and merit scholarship awards
are part of the admissions process, not the financial aid process.</p>
<p>I don’t really know about the doomsday scenario, if filing “just in case” helps
but I am not going to do it. I think a school should help people who later fall
on hard times, or it’s the wrong school to attend. Should not matter whether
you applied fresh year. Do they need to see how far you fell to decide
how badly you landed ? If you can’t pay, why does it matter that you could
pay in a prior year ? It should not.</p>
<p>Blevine - I also filed but do have concerns that “some” merit scholarship boards may also try to include needs considerations into their review process. Obviously, that would be a HUGE negative in our case. I don’t want some decision board making financial decisions on whether we would still attend even if they did not award merit. While it may be true that a kid with $60K in his pocket could attend their school while pulling additional cash from his parents or taking out a loan to cover the shortage in later years. However, those board decision makers may not realize that by not awarding merit where earned, that the student may well decide to simply go to another college that does simply award merit on well, merit rather than to (ignorantly) include a need component into the mix PRIOR to extending the award to the student.</p>
<p>.* I think a school should help people who later fall
on hard times, or it’s the wrong school to attend*</p>
<p>If your family is hesitant on making a large financial commitment & student is unlikely to want to transfer, then I agree, it is the wrong school to attend.
Only schools that are need blind for admission are likely to have endowments sufficient to offer aid to students who didn’t apply initially.</p>
<p>Otherwise spending more than you can afford freshman year, with the expectation that the school will pick up the tab for the next three, would be more of a thing than currently.</p>
<p>Most schools are need aware, for admission, as just like any of us, they have limited funds, & need to spend wisely.
Most schools also do not meet 100% need and even for the ones that do, many include self- help in meeting that need. ( work study & loans)</p>
<p>Here’s another piece of anecdata to add to the pile. We did not fill out FAFSA or CSS for kid one’s first 3 years because our income ruled out any possibility of aid. The one year we had overlap (kid1 senior year, kid 2 freshman year), was the one year our income tanked. We filled out FAFSA/CSS, got completely blown away by the amount of need based aid we got from both schools, and then never have filled out either form again because income recovered. The senior year was at Carnegie Mellon. As always, YMMV.</p>
<p>Most schools are not need aware unless you want to amend the statement to most private schools. Almost all publics will admit students without regard to need and then are fine with gapping them with regard to aid. Those privates most looking to increase their yield and not having the endowment to meet 100% of need are the ones most likely to be need-aware. I don’t know what % of privates that is.</p>
<p>You are right I should have clarified that schools which attempt to meet need are going to be more need aware than public schools which rarely offer aid besides Pell, Stafford & work study.</p>
<p>No one has an answer to the question because it varies from school to school, and may change from year to year. As others have written, it is up to you to contact each school (by phoning or checking their website) and ask them if they require the FAFSA and/or CSS to be submitted for your child to be considered for merit-based aid. Don’t trust the anecdotal experiences of families here, or of your neighbors. </p>
<p>Like you, we are also a full-pay family, so I called the financial aid office for every school on each child’s list to ask if students would be eligible for need-based institutional aid in subsequent years if we didn’t apply for it freshman year. For my kids, every school said they didn’t need to apply freshman year. If I had more kids going through the admissions cycle in the future, I’d be making the same calls yet again. Policies change. </p>
<p>On another note: please try not to type in all-caps. It’s general on-line etiquette that all-caps looks like shouting. Thanks. </p>
<p>For emphasis that doesn’t read like you’re shouting use italics or bold. It’s like using a quote: instead of putting the word “quote” in square brackets, put “i” or “b”. Like this:
<p>Actually, the colleges do realize that and it’s pretty much the name of the game in structuring so-called “merit” aid. It’s called “enrollment management” and there are firms that specialize in providing advice to colleges as to how to structure their offers to maximize the value of their aid dollars. (Google is your friend if you want to know more).</p>
<p>They will use info they have about your financials in coming to that determination as well as all sorts of other info they may have and/or surmise about you. A pure “merit” award is rare these days – the goal of the colleges is to try to prioritize the students they want the most, and then figure out what it will take to get them to attend. They know full well that a $5K or $10K offer from a peer institution can easily lure a student away. </p>
<p>Calmom - Thank you VERY, VERY MUCH! (Yes, I am shouting here)</p>
<p>If your post had been the first in this thread, I would have closed it out long ago and never filed the FAFSA because that type of bias this thread was originated to circumvent. As you may have seen in my prior posts, I speculated that schools may do this AFTER the merit determination and that makes sense for them to determine which applicants get more $'s than others. If the base merit is $9K but it could be raised for a merit+needs-based applicant to $15K, then that makes sense (to us). </p>
<p>What would not make sense (to us) would be if a candidate was qualified on merit but due to ability to pay, was not offered that merit scholarship strictly due to that characteristic (e.g. a 3.8GPA/1330SAT student would not be extended aid simply because his parents could afford it but a 3.2GPA/1200SAT student would get a $10K merit-based offer)</p>
<p>Perhaps we were naive with an expectation of the school making a decision based solely on merit alone. If they get a “peek” at our financials, I have concerns that they will then use that against us by not awarding merit were it is due. </p>
<p>The State University that is 2,800 miles away offered our child a $9K/year academic award right off the bat. No hoops to jump through. It’s truly merit based and he gets that before anything else is considered.</p>
<p>The State University that is 90 miles away (also out of state) offered nothing up front and rather makes all of their merit decisions after they have accepted their candidates. The financial aid offices there know nada, zipo, zilch regarding merit-based scholarships. They only focus on making loans and identifying needs-based candidates. They point you to their website for merit details which don’t give a reader any insight into how, or if, they consider FAFSA information. If they do restrict merit aid due to not being needs-based, our child may likely end up taking the $9K/year scholarship from the distant competing college which would literally break his mother’s heart.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the reply. I did Google before all this but I apparently did not Google the right term (enrollment management). We will now use that verbiage for a more thorough search.</p>
<p>I think that even if a college/state in the past required a FAFSA to be filed in one year to be eligible in a future year, the college/state is no longer allowed to do that for federal loans/pell. Several schools are now being investigate for requiring CSS to qualify for any aid, and they’ve been told they can’t do that, that Stafford/Pell must be available to any student who files a FAFSA and qualifies. It will be unlikely that Smith could now tell a sophomore she can’t apply for federal funds because she didn’t file a FAFSA last year. Smith funds? That’s a different story and Smith can probably make up any rules it wants (within the regulations).</p>
<p>The state of Florida, until this year, required students receiving either a FRAG (for residents at a private school) or Bright Futures (entirely merit based) award. It is no longer required, and schools will process those awards without a FAFSA. I’m speculating, but I think someone challenged it and since it is not federal based funds, the federal application (FAFSA) cannot be required. Everyone filled it out for years, and now it is not required and probably never should have been required because Bright Futures/FRAG are state programs, not federal.</p>
More likely that they would structure the amount they award based on the information they have. That is, at it’s simplest, they would know you could afford full freight, so they would want to award just enough to entice your son to choose the school over a competitor.So maybe they offer you $5K – but if they thought that it was really a stretch for you to pay the costs, they’d offer $10K instead. </p>
<p>You like to think of it as a “merit” award because it feels nice to think that your son is being recognized for his accomplishments, but more often it’s just a system of discounting. </p>
<p>But it’s more complicated because they are following their own priorities as well as continuing a lot of factors that have nothing to do with finances, but everything to do with assessing the student’s likelihood of attending. In the current era of data-crunching, it could be a combination of factors that wouldn’t make sense to anyone other than a statistician. </p>
<p>I do know from experience that, at least among private colleges, geography is a factor. They’ll offer more “merit” aid to a student who would have to travel from a greater distance than to one who is nearer to campus-- probably part to serve their own diversity goals, and partly out of recognition that students are more likely to end up at colleges closer to home. But I don’t know if that is a factor for the public u. that offered merit money to your son – I think public u’s are more likely to have pure “merit” awards that are automatically awarded based on stats. </p>
<p>Because of the enrollment management concern, there is some room for negotiation at some schools – so if a choice is being made because of financial reasons, it may be worthwhile to let the college know – sometimes extra merit money is “found” at the last minute. </p>
<p>Given that OP has college accts to cover the COA, I wouldnt think that merit aid would be such a factor in the decision.
Particularly since that student wants to major in a language, that apparently the university has a strong program in, but considering he wont be able to speak with many native speakers, given that less than1.5% reside in the area, it seems short sighted.</p>
<p>However many kids want to see a totally different part of the country for college, & it certainly would meet that requirement!</p>
<p>EmeraldKity4 is correct. As the Originating Poster (OP), we would not qualify for any needs-based funding nor would we be willing to take out any loans in pursuit of a college education. </p>
<p>Thanks again to Calmom for more details. Now that I have read up on the data analytics of enrollment management, I do better understand what the sampling models and determination factors may be. My niece attended and graduated with high honors and then went on to complete law school so this particular college has most likely identified that alignment. My brother is a great guy but did not have the benefit of the financial foundation my son has been afforded so his daughter had a little more than 50% of her attendance funded via merit scholarships. She was also already in-state so I think his annual cost was well under $15K/year for this $42K/year school cost to us (without the in-state waiver)</p>
<p>Both of these choices are public/State universities. Neither would be considered “Ivy League” but such a designation is meaningless in our eyes anyway. My wife prefers the closer college and in honestly, I do as well due to the fact that it is the #1 University on many rankings for my son’s (planned) major. Whether he will stay with that particular major or not will depend on him retaining the grade requirement (and of course, being happy with it). His #1 goal is to live in Japan after college and I have no doubt that he will do so. My primary concern is that he be happy while living there so I am encouraging him to mix his love of the culture with his aptitude for certain marketable skill sets.</p>
<p>I did speak to someone at the distant option and have learned that there may well be additional $'s available from individual departments within individual collegiate departments and we will be looking into those. I will also be speaking with the local option to learn of their ability to meet additional funding options. At this point, they could likely get him to sign there simply by offering us in-state tuition and all the $'s we set aside would then end up going that direction.</p>
<p>If you are eligible for federal funds, you will receive federal funds. Anyone who is eligible for federal funding has always been able to receive federal funding as long as they filed the FAFSA. </p>
<p>Most school that do not give financial aid in subsequent years if you don’t file freshman year or late during the cycle set these policies when it comes to their own institutional monies (which they are perfectly free to do when giving out their own money).</p>
<p>Schools will ask for the FAFSA for federal aid (which is Pell, FWS, SEOG, Direct loans) and the CSS profile for institutional aid (they do not use the CSS for federal aid)_</p>
<p>Although I don’t see how it’s possible there appears to still be some confusion.
That has got to be a typo, right? Merit awards are the ONLY factor available to us to help keep cost manageable.</p>
<p>We need merit awards to make up the difference. It appears that our son’s intellect and grades are sufficient to warrant merit. The intent is to obtain merit where viable to bring cost in-line with our ability to cover COA for the full four years without requiring any loans or other financing. We would like to get him into a program for $20K/year for the first 4 years ($80K total or about 50% of the full boat price tag). This should be viable based on understanding at this time.</p>
<p>As for the distant travel and language issues. My son has been taking Japanese instruction since he was 13. He can already read, write and be somewhat conversant. Our expectation and his desire is that he will be able to grow that skill during his time in college to the point whereas he would be fluent in the language so that living in Japan would not be an issue after graduation. Given this progression, it is likely that he would continue his education for his advanced degree from any of the respected Japanese University’s that partner with US-based ones in my son’ chosen field. This will likely mean even more funding may then be required. I am hopeful that he we obtain additional scholarships and that our continued investment of his gifted funds will be sufficient to permit him that luxury so this isn’t really just about covering these initial 4 years. Hope that sheds some light to the subject matter for those playing along at home. ;)</p>
<p>As to the travel the US, I myself did that when I went to college so I do know where he is coming from. I had local options but instead traveled some 900 miles to a college I had never been to before. There are a lot of details that drove that decision but the bottom line is that I understand and will support him in that should he want to go there as would his mother (a bit more reluctantly)</p>
<p>sybbie- other than Smith and Colby, which restrict institutional grants in sophomore year (but not junior or senior year) for those students that did not file for freshman year, which schools do not give institutional financial aid monies in subsequent years if you don’t file freshman year?</p>