<p>A couple of years ago, S1 was offered a good merit package from his first choice school and had already accepted and sent his deposit. The parent of another student accepted at the same university was bragging to me about a merit aid package for his son that was much (much much) more generous than ours, for a student with much lower stats. I jumped right on the phone to the FA office and asked if such a thing was possible. They assured me that there was no possibility of aid in the amount described and assured me that my son’s package was near the high that they offered. They did explain the appeal process and offered to have his admissions info reviewed by their finaid committee. A week later we received both a phone call and a letter offering $1000 more. The staff in the FA office were very friendly and answered all questions. We didn’t negotiate, just asked what other similar students were being offered. I think its always a good idea to ask the FA office to take a second look.</p>
<p>We did not fill out a FAFSA- expecting it would hurt chances of getting the maximum merit aid (student has near perfect SAT, NMF, val etc). I assumed we’d still get letters from financial aid either saying pay it all (IVYs) or come for free (state flag U). Now I am getting worried about this strategy…one IVY (admitted) asked for a FAFSA etc. Yikes! Will state U’s send out FA letters with merit aid without having a FAFSA in hand?</p>
<p>cptofthehouse: How did you go about negotiating the award up?</p>
<p>Momasita, you may get merit scholarships, but there won’t be any FA without a FAFSA. I don’t understand your reasoning that FAFSA would reduce merit aid awards, and I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that they not fill it out. Some schools DS applied to told us that if you don’t submit the paperwork when you apply, you can’t apply for FA until your child’s 3rd year of college (unless there’s a drastic change in financial circumstances).</p>
<p>Thanks Lafalum, help me out here…my logic was this, our state has one VG school, with state merit funding given automatically. But for the OSS, it seems that many (4 so far) are giving out what seem like large awards but truly just bring the really high ($30k-$40k) OSS tuition more in line what you would pay in state anyway. So in these crazy economic mess times, if fin aid folks think you don’t need any more money because they have your last years financial data why would they give you any more money?</p>
<p>Merit aid is given to entice your child to attend that school. It is not in the school’s interest to short change the offer if you have money because then your child might not attend (that’s also the reason it’s not a good idea to apply ED).</p>
<p>We are still waiting on a few merit awards as well. Our situation seems to be like a lot of others already mentioned, most of D’s significant merit offers have come because of a specific test score, she offers something that the school needs (is an DIII level athlete), or our state is underrepresented at the specific school. I don’t think the amount of merit depended upon whether we sent the FAFSA or not, in fact, her full-tuition offer came before the FAFSA was even due. If the merit offer at her top choice doesn’t come close to the full tuition one, we will try to talk it up since they are very close in “rank” (as much as I dislike that ranking system to begin with). </p>
<p>For the OP - did your S apply to any schools that have specific merit award programs (sounded like that was what you were referencing)? If so, it may be worth a call to ask if they would reconsider him in cases where the student originally offered the award turned it down to attend another school…wouldn’t hurt</p>
<p>OK Erins dad, but why would 2 top Ivy type schools want a FAFSA now since they have already sent acceptance? Why not just send a FA letter as well?</p>
<p>what we had found at S’s school, U of south Carolina is that departmental merit awards were not handed out until after a student gave their deposit.The awards were “saved” for enrolled students only. Happened to S in a certain dept and to others as well in other depts.
I dont know how common an occurence this is.</p>
<p>Momasita, Get on the phone on Monday PLEASE and talk directly to the financial aid office at the schools in question. Grovel. Explain you messed up (IMHO you did, hugely). Some will accept FAFSA until April 1 or April 15. MANY schools (including Ivies) use the FAFSA as the starter point for handing out dollars. No Fafsa from you = you don’t want any help. The FAFSA is how you say “We’d like to be in line for some dollars off the bill.” If there is a special scholarship, say for a left handed tuba player of Lithuanian descent and you happen to have the only left handed tuba player of Lithuanian descent applying, then you STILL might not get that scholarship if you haven’t filled out a FAFSA. Get going on finding out the rules for the schools on your kid’s list. Good luck.</p>
<p>^^^ echo HoppingLass.</p>
<p>"but why would 2 top Ivy type schools want a FAFSA now since they have already sent acceptance? Why not just send a FA letter as well? "
Because you are REQUIRED to submit the FASFA in order to be CONSIDERED for financial aid!
“No Fafsa from you = you don’t want any help”
This is absolutely correct. You need to contact the FA office and do some major pleading for your major screw up. Do what ever it takes to fix this, and that means starting with submiting the FAFSA tonite!</p>
<p>
What would they base a FA offer on if you have not provided financial information? No FA application = No possibility of FA. And remember top Ivies do not offer merit aid at all. Only need based aid.</p>
<p>“Because you are REQUIRED to submit the FASFA in order to be CONSIDERED for financial aid!” “No Fafsa from you = you don’t want any help” </p>
<p>Actually, no FAFSA means you get no “need-based” help. If you are looking for merit awards only, they are not coming from the federal govt, a bank loan or a scholarship program based on need. If you will not qualify, why do a FAFSA? Can someone who got calculated with $0 in financial need money based on the FAFSA comment on this?</p>
<p>^^^ We filled out FAFSA the first year for D1. We have not bothered since even though we will have two in college next year.
D1 gets merit aid every year and D2 will also next year. FAFSA not required at their schools for merit aid.</p>
<p>Momasita, I commiserate with your confusion. I have found that the best course of action is to call the FA offices and ask what they need. Every school seems to do this somewhat differently. For some, we have submitted no additional information beyond the FAFSA/Profile/IDOC forms. (Our situation is different than yours because we will qualify for some need-based aid from some schools.) But even at our in-state school, as well as some private schools, there is a separate financial aid application. (I was completely surprised by this, and found out about the first form we had missed only because the FA office sent a letter saying the application was missing. I then researched the rest of D’s schools and found that we had missed a few more. Fortunately, the schools were understanding when I called and said to submit the information ASAP.) My point is that if you have not submitted the FAFSA and have not submitted the FA application, the FA office might not even know that you exist.</p>
<p>'My point is that if you have not submitted the FAFSA and have not submitted the FA application, the FA office might not even know that you exist."
Exactly!!!</p>
<p>
OP seems to be asking about FA here. As others have said, there will be no FA without FAFSA.
Here the OP is making clear that she is only talking about <em>merit</em> aid, and yes, in that case you do not need to fill out FAFSA. I just want to point out that the terms Financial Aid and Merit Aid are not interchangeable – FA usually refers to need-based aid.</p>
<p>
Because for S1’s school, even the award of merit aid required the filing of FAFSA. It must be the required paperwork that fulfills the file. And of course, the school then is also able to offer Stafford Loans (which we did not take during his first 2 years, but may have him take during his junior and senior years so that he has “skin in the game”).</p>
<p>Momasita, I just noticed something in your posts - are you waiting to hear on merit money from an Ivy? Because Ivies do NOT give merit money. They give need-based aid (i.e. financial aid) ONLY. No sports scholarships, no academic merit scholarships. They may have some endowed scholarships for specific things, but in general they don’t do merit money.</p>
<p>So if you are willing to pay 100%, then don’t send a FAFSA. Otherwise, call first thing in the morning. Beg, apologize, and FILL OUT A FAFSA.</p>