<p>@Lafalum84: I am an international student, and so is my friend. And I am referring to the International Student Financial Aid Application Form and the Certificate of Finances from. Sorry for not making this clear in the start.</p>
<p>We sure bring our own personal histories to the college application process. I know more than one mother who freaked at the Register for the Draft question in the FAFSA. I know at least one parent who got overwhelmed by all the questions and was stunned and grateful to know that the FAFSA could be corrected/amended. I think filling out the FAFSA is a huge step in letting your baby go and postponing on it can be one part of the psychology of hanging onto a kid. All of a sudden it is April 19, the kid has applied, been accepted and there are huge bills looming. </p>
<p>I wish we had ala carte colleges – It never even occurred to me (thirty years ago!) to check into the quality of the food service or the deluxeness of the student gym. I looked at the department where I wanted a degree and was really thrilled that the campus had some trees. Now we pay full freight for a lot of bells and whistles that really are not necessary. (Million dollar coaches and the like).</p>
<p>Just saw an article in Alma Mater’s newspaper that financial issues played a bigger part in Admissions decisions this year. The college tries to be as close to “need-blind” as they can. Admission said that in a normal year, financial considerations only “affect” about 1% of applicant decisions, but this year it had an impact on about 5% of decisions.</p>
<p>DD has a dream school that I think would be great for her, but it’s a match and maybe a little bit of a reach (she’s in their mid 50% range for GPA and test scores, but she’s near the bottom of the range). Her freshman year she would probably qualify for FA, because her brother will be in his final year of college (that’s the only year he will qualify for FA). After he graduates, I think our EFC will be too high for her to get any more help. DH is suggesting that we check “no” on the FA box on the Common App for this school to help her chances of admission, and if she is admitted we’ll just owe that much more on the Home Equity loan that we know we’re going to have to take out anyway. He says she only gets one shot at this, and he doesn’t want to put her at a disadvantage when she’s only probably going to get FA for one year anyway. I don’t know, though…</p>
<p>But if we do check “no” we will stick to it. We won’t change our minds and ask for FA later.</p>
<p>I mean, my family was living in a situation where my dad’s now job’s income could no longer pay for the house we live in. He had to commute from ohio to new york for two years, and now we had to drop the price of our house $400,000 so that it would sell (its been on the market for two years). Now, we will barely be able afford moving to our new home, and that price drop would have paid for my college education two times over. My dad makes good money but the housing market has put us into incredible debt. if we don’t sell the house in the next few months, I’m going to have to refuse offers at my schools and defer for god knows how long to work, because there is no way we can pay if we don’t move.</p>
<p>ya know, it is not always simple. I have not read this entire thread so pardon if I repeat another’s view. The economy has nosedived since my S’s acceptance at the college of his choice and we are retired. Our assets do not allow an EFC in our “favor” (depending on how you look at it) so we didn’t bother to file for aid at the time of application but we did end up applying for some aid at S’s chosen school after the fact. I talked to admissions and told our story and she said to go ahead and try it. They would look at it. We have sent in an enrollment deposit before gettting a decision, but S may defer enrollment a year (we have told admissions this) to try to raise funds and to allow us and/or the economy to come up to the task. </p>
<p>I am surprised to see here that this was somehow cheating someone else out of an offer of admission. Yet, I do not feel badly about this at all. It has to do with intent, and our intent was not to slip in because the college thought we would not ask for aid, nor do I believe S was accepted because he listed he was not applying for aid. In fact we have gone back to the pot several times asking for larger scholarship awards since S was accepted. The college of course can say yes or no (they have said yes a couple of times now) - can’t they also say no to fin-aid? Aren’t there plenty of students to take the place of the ones who now need aid but did not initially apply for it (if they decide they can’t pay the bills and not go)?
Maybe I am missing the point or have misinterpreted the gist of the objections (wouldn’t surprise me, it’s late I’m tired and ready for the acceptance/rejection drama to be over) And I just now saw this thread that came up a few weeks ago but I missed (just about the time we decided we needed to ask if fin-aid might be available) </p>
<p>There may be some non-sleazy reasons people have changed their plans and decided to ask for aid (doesn’t mean they’ll get it)</p>
<p>I think very few people check no in order to game the system, although judging from the repeated posts here on CC last fall, it seems that many consider it. Hopefully, more rational thoughts prevail before the application is actually sent! </p>
<p>I know only one family that has changed the no to a yes, due to unexpected job loss, and FA was awarded in the form of loans (student already had a merit scholarship that was not FAFSA contingent). That worked for them, as they decided they needed to preserve/reallocate capital until a new position could be found and could deal with the loan payments or pay them off quickly later.</p>
<p>Don’t cheat, its unfair enough for those who applied early for the financial aids but was treated as equally as those who applied after they were admitted. Then there’s no point for promptness.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is cheating. If you don’t want to ask for financial aid and change your mind, so what? You take the risk that you get the leavings if you get anything. If a school has the money and ends up giving you money, then good for you. It’s that risk that each person has to decide he wants to take. But I would not call it cheating.</p>
<p>Well, I retract my words. It’s not really cheating, but then it won’t benefit the early applicants.</p>
<p>How would it not benefit the early applicants? The early applicants are given the first shot at all of the scholarships, grants and other goodies. If you apply late, you are looking at a much diminished financial awards. Some colleges will outright ban you for them. It is a risk you take.</p>
<p>There was a College Night at our public high school, and the invited speakers were admissions officers from a prominent private, a small public, and a community college. One of the adcoms actually said, “The application asks if you are going to ask for financial aid. You don’t need to answer that - just put no. Then file the FAFSA later.” I could NOT believe he said that. A few weeks later I was talking to first-time college parents and they said, “Well of course we’re going to check no and apply later, that’s what the guy said to do.” When I explained that some schools will not accept any financial aid requests for TWO YEARS if you check that off (which is what Colby told me) unless you have a major change in circumstances, she was shocked. I told her to call the colleges her kid was going to apply to and ask them what the implications of checking “no” were. I still can’t believe the admissions officer actually told people this.</p>
<p>It’s like going to a sale late and still getting a great bargain that is still on the shelves. The early birds will scoop up most of the goodies, so you take a chance coming late. You can’t expect the best stuff or anything to be left there, but there is a chance that you do get someone. It certainly doesn’t hurt those who came early. Their earliness gave them first crack at what’s there. The latecomers take their chances.</p>
<p>I would be interested in knowing what college had an admissions officer who said that. If what he is saying is true for his school, then it gives a student an advantage for admissions to not let the college know that he is applying for financial aid, and it gives him no disadvantage to apply later. Maybe the school does not give any grants of its own, so the student only has the government stuff to get which would not depend on the timing in getting the FAFSA done early or letting the school know a student needs aid.</p>
<p>I know a number of cases where students did file FAFSA but did not apply for financial aid at a school. In such cases, such students needed the FAFSA for merit awards or wanted Stafford loans. Some schools require FAFSA for PLUS as well. If such schools are need aware, you should make it clear on the application that you are not applying for financial aid, but later you can go for government/merit money that require FAFSA. There are some independent scholarships that require FAFSA as well, so there are reasons to complete it, even if you are not applying for financial aid.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve read through a lot of these and didn’t even know that a scam exists. I’m wondering what my daughter actually checked on the common app. Maybe that’s why she didn’t get any financial aid offers from any schools. Ours will have to be a economic decision. Does anyone know about how UDel financial aid works and how you can get any aid? I filled out the FAFSA on time and thought merit based aid was given based on the application with nothing else to apply for. I have an interview with them this week. Could someone give me some pointers on how to get some kind of aid from them?</p>
<p>captofthe house- sorry for my ignorance, but I am new to this- could you explain what a PROFILE school is, that you mentioned earlier on this thread? thanx</p>
<p>PROFILE is the most common financial aid application that schools request after the FAFSA. Many private schools use PROFILE in addition to FAFSA. Like the common application, the questions are individualized to some degree. PROFILE asks many more questions such as home equity, sibling accounts, non custodial parents accounts, qualified pension funds, for example.</p>
<p>The more generous schools tend to use PROFILE in addition to FAFSA. I don’t know any schools that guarantee meeting 100% of need that use FAFSA alone.</p>