So FAFSA opens Oct 1 and the general wisdom is apply ASAP. Would it make any difference aid-wise to pay my son’s Spring semester college tuition early before filling out the FAFSA on 10/1 in order to be “poorer”? FYI, we also have a high school senior.
Need based aid is driven primarily by income. Your assets above the asset protection allowance are assessed at 5.6% of value for FAFSA purposes.
If your income is above a certain amount…you wouldn’t get much need based aid anyway.
Do all of the colleges guarantee to meet full need?
You might be doing all these financial gymnastics for no actual financial aid gain.
Did he receive FA for this school year, and if so did you have a similar amount of savings when you applied last year? If you didn’t get a Pell grant or substantial grants from the school last year, you probably won’t get them this year either.
You don’t HAVE to file FAFSA on 10/1. Most schools don’t require them for returning students until later in the cycle, often Feb 1. Check. One think to be aware of is the tax years you are claiming in. If you pay the spring tuition in the fall, it is in that tax year. I like to keep my bills and payments in the same tax year, because those are also when the scholarships and grants are posted on the bill.
Yes, you can pay something and then have lower assets to report.
Several of the colleges on my HS senior’s list do meet full need. My college son didn’t get aid this year but we’ll have two in college. We will have less savings this year. I’m fairly certain our income is too high for govt aid but maybe more institutional aid? I suppose I could run some NPCs with the savings differences to see what that says.
I did pay off all bills before submitting FAFSA. Every dollar counts.
^^Exactly. Not all schools give a lot of need based aid outside state or federal aid so your son currently in college may do better, may not. Older son’s EFC should drop about in half from last year, but if it was above$10k or so, still wouldn’t get much of a Pell grant, even if EFC falls to $5000.
Any funds in the parents’ name are only assessed at 5.6% so if you have $100k in his 529 plan, only a difference of $5600 on the EFC. If you pay $20k of that for spring tuition, it will reduce that to $4480 ($80k x 5.6%). Most of the EFC is because of income.
The recommendation for filing early in Oct is usually for students with low EFCs who might qualify for extra grants and federal work study if they file earlier.
If the spring bill is due in December and you want to pay it first, then you can, as long as you keep aid deadlines set by the schools.
If you are going to pay the bill anyway, might as well pay it before reporting your assets. But don’t expect it to make a huge difference in your financial aid. Your eligibility for aid might go up by about 5 cents for each dollar you spend. But each dollar of additional eligibility does not usually result in a dollar more financial aid, since most schools adjust the output of the formulas and/or don’t meet full need.
Your current college student is attending a FAFSA only school…an OOS public that doesn’t really give OOS need based aid.
What is your EFC for this year?
How much merit did he get?
While it’s fine to prepay his tuition, it doesn’t sound like your EFC will be low enough, even with two in college, to suddenly qualify for need based grants.