<p>Is there a level of income and/or assets at which point one need not file the FAFSA or CSS Profile? If so, what are those levels?</p>
<p>I do understand that some school require the FAFSA in order to receive merit aid. What is the best way to find out what those schools are?</p>
<p>TIA!</p>
<p>If you don’t want need based aid (and if all the calculators show you will not get it), and do not want your student to take out any loans or be considered for work study positions, then you usually do not need to fill either of them out.</p>
<p>Each school’s financial aid section of their website usually has a section on merit aid or scholarships. Read that to see if you can tell if the FAFSA or Profile is needed. Usually it is not (of my D’s 8 schools last year, only one required that you file for need based aid in order to be considered for merit scholarships). If you aren’t sure, contact the FA office of each school and ask them. That is the only way to tell that I know of (there is no central list or anything).</p>
<p>What calculators are there othen than EFC? Sorry if this is a dumb question.</p>
<p>Each college is required to have a net price calculator on their finaid website. For the schools you are interested in, enter your financial info and see what estimates you get. You can also play around with the numbers and see when you get to no aid. The calculators aren’t as reliable for the self-employed, those who own a business, those with rental properties etc. The profile just collects the financial info, schools have their own policies as to how to treat each item of info collected. There is a general purpose institutional aid calculator on the college board site but using the school specific ones would be better.</p>