We have the same problem: we will not qualify for FA, but hoping for merit scholarships for D. We answered No on Common app for FA and now don’t know if we should file FAFSA and CSS for D to be considered for scholarships. do you have any advise?
Look at the scholarship policies for each school your D is applying to. Some will require you complete the FAFSA and possibly the CSS to demonstrate that you don’t qualify for need-based aid. Some schools prefer proof that you’re not eligible for things like Pell grants, which if your D were eligible, would potentially reduce the amount of the merit award with money coming from the government rather than the school.
If you even think loans might be needed, complete the FAFSA.
@firsttimeuser72 , be careful! I don’t think you can do that! If you say no FA needed on the common app, then submit forms for CSS and the FAFSA, then surely it will appear that you were dishonest on your common app. It may well be viewed as a strategy to appear to need no aid in the hopes of gaining admission. The CSS is due at the same time as the application. The FAFSA is due later I believe. But if your child gets in on the basis of no need, but you are submitting a CSS, they might rescind an offer. Maybe others with more experience will know?
This is wrong. At any time a student can file the FAFSA to get a Direct Loan. No problem. I would wait to file the CSS (first of all it’s a lot of info to collect) and ask the school if you need to file it for merit aid. My D’s school told us we needed to file.
Is that for a certain school? That certainly wasn’t true for any school on either D’s list.
@“Erin’s Dad” , okay,thanks for clarifying. I have called six of the schools my D is applying to, and they all said you only file the CSS if you want to be considered for financial aid, and you must file it at the time the application is due. But now you have me wondering if maybe I misunderstood, so I am going to call the FA offices again on Monday.
Two of the colleges I called, where my D has a good chance of merit aid, said that merit aid is a decision made by admissions and has nothing to do the CSS. So we may not submit CSS forms there, and also not at the state college she is applying to. A couple of colleges where we thought she would get merit aid, in fact no longer offer merit aid! That was a bit of a surprise, as we thought she was a good candidate for merit at four colleges she is applying to.so I wonder if they do still offer “financial aid” as an incentive to good candidates, and just no longer call it merit aid?
Need based financial aid is offered based on financial need…not merit. If the school no longer gives merit aid, then they will give aid only based on your family income and asset information…and your student’s academic credentials won’t come into play…at all. In many cases, the financial aid office never sees the actual application at all. They simply know the student has been accepted and the financial aid office should craft a need based award based on the financial aid application form information.
Merit aid is typically awarded by the admissions office based on the strength of the application. If the school no longer offers merit aid…then this would no longer be happening.
@thumper1 , that is useful and makes sense. I wasn’t aware that the FA office may never see the application. Our school counsellors and even the private advisor we have used seem to know hardly a thing about how the financial aspect works. It’s very confusing.
There are a few schools that give an award just for filling out the FAFSA; Stetson is one.
At my daughter’s school, there are ‘alum scholarships’ that are given out by the FA office. They seem to be pretty randomly awarded, probably based on need most of the time, but the one requirement to get one is that you had to have filed the FAFSA.
Concordia University Irvine is another (at least they did in 2013).
Definitely contact each school if the requirement is not clear on its website. Many schools do not require financial aid paperwork in order to receive merit aid. We did not complete FAFSA or Profile and our daughter received merit aid from 3 of her 5 schools (the other 2 were large state flagships where she didn’t qualify for what little merit they gave).