<p>So, my dad is...well, let's say extremely private...bordering on paranoid...and has an understandable problem with sharing personal information with others, especially the government. At this point, he is refusing to fill out the FAFSA, because he suspects that it will not be extremely beneficial, as we likely will not qualify for too much, and would thus be an unnecessary invasion of privacy.</p>
<p>Should we fill it out? What are the pros/cons of filling this out, other than discovering that we don't qualify for federal aide?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>FAFSA asks for income information that is from your tax returns and asset information such as bank accounts, stocks etc. I have a sneaking suspicion that the government already has access to all that information, assuming your Dad files a tax return. If he doesn't - well then you have a whole other set of problems. Really - there is nothing on FAFSA that the govt does not already know about you.</p>
<p>Benefits - you may qualify for need based aid. Some aid that is not need based, such as Stafford loans, requires FAFSA to be filed for you to be eligible for it.</p>
<p>I don't know what to suggest. Has he looked at what FAFSA asks for. Really not particularly intrusive - less so than a tax return in many ways. Here is a link to the paper version of FAFSA if you want to have a look, and show your Dad what it entails, without starting the online version.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.federalstudentaid.ed.gov/docs/color_English_fafsa_2009-2010.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.federalstudentaid.ed.gov/docs/color_English_fafsa_2009-2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>Haha! This is almost the same exact thing that my parents said. The only difference is that I need this aid in order to even think about going to college. They had no idea what the FAFSA was until I explained it to them. After about an hour of debate, they finally agreed to let me see their taxes and pay stubs. I pretty much had to fill out the entire thing myself. Being a first generation college student is really hard. =P</p>