<p>After much study and agonizing, I have concluded my family will not get one thin dime in financial aid because of (middle class) income. OK, I can deal with it. Yes, yes, I know how lucky we are.</p>
<p>Now, I am trying to figure out whether there are some other reasons why we should go ahead and fill out the FAFSA. Is there something I am missing here? Any other downsides I will find out later, if we don't fill it out?</p>
<p>I know I am sounding kinda crabby, but I really will appreciate any advice and assistance.</p>
<p>"As I understand, you need to fill out the FAFSA to qualify for merit aid (non-need based). "</p>
<p>Mr. Crabby says: Can someone tell me why that makes sense? Why have to disclose all your assets to qualify for something not based (?) on assets???</p>
<p>[IloveLa: Thanks much for the response, Mr. Crabby is not mad at you.]</p>
<p>In many cases (but not all) you’re required to fill out the FAFSA because it is easier for the school to process it that way, and they may be able to better optimize their use of available funds. </p>
<p>I also think that with many schools, merit aid is doled out with a significant eye on financail need. Yes, it goes to the relatively stronger students, but it may well go to the stronger students where the Adcom thinks it may make the difference between the student attending and not attending. If you know the family’s EFC, you have a good idea of the relative impact of the merit award. $30K EFC + 15K Merit award at a $50K school may have a bigger impact than a $15K Merit Award for a family with a $20K EFC at the same school. And that same $15K award may have the most impact on a family with a $50K EFC, who can not reasonably expect any financial aid, but who may find that the 30% discount off of list price is a good deal.</p>
<p>Some schools have a grind-it-out formula (published or unpublished) that automatically generates merit awards for students with certain gpa/SAT combos, but it seems that the vast majority of the selective colleges don’t work this way.</p>
<p>MissouriGal, do you want to take Stafford loans? You will need to fill out the FAFSA to do so. Even if you think you do not want these loans (which have favorable interest rates), you will have the flexibility to take them if you find that you need to.</p>
<p>LA, not all schools require FAFSA and/or Profile for merit aid; totally depends on the school. S got merit aid before I’d filled out FAFSA and Profile.</p>
<p>Schools know that tuition can be a struggle even for families that don’t qualify for financial aid. Merit awards can make the school more attractive to the students they would like to admit. Having some idea of the applicants’ financial picture can help them use the merit money effectively.</p>
<p>Say the college DOES have a grind-it-out published formula with certain identified Merit Awards. Do colleges also have a stash of generic unidentified merit money they can dole out as they wish? What do they call those awards when you get your FA letter?</p>
<p>Bear in mind that things can change from one year to the next with regard to your family’s financial situation. Many schools will not consider you for need-based aid in subsequent years if you didn’t apply as a freshman. That could be a very big mistake, particularly in this economy. Are you sure that you’ll never be in a situation where you could qualify?</p>
Depends on the school. My daughter’s school has listed awards and criteria for qualifying. She received the award for which she qualified as well as a bunch of smaller awards that aren’t listed anywhere. The combo of smaller awards (not including the larger), came out to $10k per year. Not insignificant. They all had different names like “Women in Science,” “future leaders” and stuff like that.</p>
<p>Here’s a somewhat politically incorrect and certainly indulgent question: If we can muster the cash to pay for at least the first year, is it going to help my child’s admissions chances if we steer completely clear of a school’s financial aid office? Ineligible for any need-based aid, we’d like to apply for a non-need Stafford loan or a PLUS loan (???) to free up some cash but won’t go that route (file the FAFSA paperwork) if doing so might incrementally hurt his admissions chances. What would you do?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t fill out any financial information unless I am getting something out of it. If you know you are not qualified to get aid freshman year, then you got in without any aid. If you should need aid later on then apply, and you will be at the end of the line, whether you provided them with financial information freshman year or not. We don’t qualify for any subsidized loans, so we provided school with no financial information.</p>
<p>If you could afford to pay without FA, then your kid will do better in the admission process. I mentioned a year ago before the financial melt down, but many people disagreed with me because some schools are need blind. There is never need blind. How do you think all of those schools happen to come up with 50% of full pay students? If you do not apply for FA the first year, then your chance of getting FA later is not as great, especially if your family’s finance didn’t change.</p>
<p>Thanks oldfort. I am brand new to this process. If we don’t go on record the first year with FAFSA paperwork, would those unsubsidized Stafford loans be any harder to get the second year or beyond? Or are these pretty much available to anyone at anytime? Today we have enough in his 529 plan to get him through close to two years at a private college. But if we exhaust that in the first two years, we will need to come up with cash via loans to pay for the final two.</p>
<p>There were at least a couple of LACs we looked at that explicitly said that they planned financial aid on a four-year basis, and if you did not apply as an incoming freshman, that they would likely not have funds available in future years. I would hope that would not be the case if there was a significant change in financial circumstances, but I think they’re trying to avoid exactly what you suggest.</p>
<p>You can always fill out the FAFSA after you have been admitted if that is a worry.</p>
<p>if you don’t need FA then you might want to complete a fafsa so you can qualify for a Stafford loan (unsubsidized) or so your parents can qualify for a PLUS loan. You never know what could happen financially and you might want one or more of these for cash flow purposes or an emergency.</p>
<p>You do not need to fill out FAFSA for merit aid unless requested by college. D1 and D2 have received merit aid from their respective schools (private and public) and we do not fill out FAFSA.</p>
<p>We filled it out the first year. Our EFC was off the scale. I didn’t fill it out the second year and don’t plan to fill it out in the future. You should check with your intended schools about how they do merit aid. At our son’s school, they have need aid, need/merit aid and merit-only aid. Most of the money is need-based but the FAFSA isn’t required for consideration for the merit-only aid.</p>
<p>Filling out the FAFSA may mean that the school sends a few loan offers your way. If you plan to just pay cash (some of us hate loans period), then you have to go to the trouble of canceling the loans (at least we had to). The FAFSA gives the university a lot of intrusive personal information. It’s put in a database which means that some set of people have access to your family financial information. I have some training and expertise in database info security and I generally try to keep my information private where I reasonably can.</p>
<p>This is my personal opinion - if your finance is not as solid as another applicant, but still not eligible for FA, why put yourself in a worse light for no good reason. During this difficult time, a school would more likely to admit a student that could afford to pay all 4 years comfortably. If my EFC is less than 5,000, I would forego FA and let my kid apply without FA.</p>
<p>?Pardon?
Did you mean if your EFC is MORE than $50,000?
EFC= Expected family contribution AND the only determining factor from which the EFC derives is the FAFSA (plus PROFILE at Profile schools) so I’m not sure what the heck you mean there…</p>