I ran the numbers on the college board website and it looks like our EFC is around $60K 
Should we even bother submitting FAFSA/CSS?
Tuition/room/board are $38K at the college D has been admitted to (and wants to attend). We haven’t heard about any merit offers (yet). I don’t know if they are forthcoming, or how we can find out whether or not she will be getting any merit. There was nothing in the acceptance letter.
We do have a second D who will enter college in 2 years. She may be looking at pricier colleges, so what would happen with the EFC and whether we would qualify for aid?
Thanks!
You can use a FAFSA estimator to see a projected efc when you list 2 in college. File FAFSA if you want to be able to take federal student loan, or parent plus loan. Otherwise if the school doesn’t require it for merit, then you don’t need to file it.
Usually you will see a merit offer in an acceptance letter. However some schools have separate applications for scholarships and they will award those later. I was just looking at one accepted students can fill out and is awarded Mar 1.
Yes you should and the CSS. You never know.
Should I file the FAFSA/CSS now with 2014 data, or wait until mid to late-Feb to file with more accurate data?
File the forms in keeping with the college deadline. Since you are not looking for limited funding aid…which is for low income students…just adhere to the deadlines by the college.
Check the school to see if these forms are required for merit aid. Some schools require these for incoming freshmen.
There are a handful of schools that do have restrictions on applying for institutional aid in subsequent years…so check for that as well.
You do NOT have to file these forms at all.
If all you are looking for is the Direct Loan, you can file the 2016-2017 FAFSA anytime before June 2017.
We filed FAFSA so we had the flexibility to take out federal student loans if we decided to do so. For those schools that required CSS PROFILE where merit aid offers brought the total cost so far below our EFC, I called and asked to have that requirement waived. I didn’t want to spend money to send in the CSS to colleges where there clearly would be no FA forthcoming. For a couple of schools, we had to file CSS because the FA deadlines were before we had admissions/merit decisions.
One school has preferred deadline for FAFSA as Feb 15 and the same for CSS. So I guess I need to do it with the information I have now.
Any reason you can’t do your taxes sometime before February 15?
We can try. One of our banks usually doesn’t send their paperwork until late February (!).
Our wages are about 5% less this year than they were last year. So I’d rather use as much of this year’s data as possible.
What are you getting from your banks? Can you access asset information online the day you complete the forms?
I believe it’s the tax info on our HSA account. I’ll have to see if we can access this online.
Another question - do we include the balance of the 529 account for our other daughter (not yet in college)?
I believe all 529 accounts are listed and counted as parent assets.