S19 is very fortunate; we can afford for him to be full pay. I assumed that meant we didn’t have to bother filling out the FAFSA* or the CSS Profile (which is required by some of his schools).
My husband thinks maybe we should, in case he loses his job and we no longer have the income to support full pay. His thinking is that if we apply and get turned down and then things change, say next summer or part way through first semester and suddenly we have no income, then we can appeal and ask for a change in the package given the new circumstances. His concern is that if we haven’t applied for financial aid, there’s nothing to appeal and we’ll just have to wait and apply for sophomore year.
I understand that different schools may have different policies and also that some schools will make you wait for a while (I’ve read 90 days) to see if you get a new job. Leaving all that aside, in general, does he sound right to you?
My position is that if circumstances change, of course we’d be able to go to the financial aid office in August or October and say that we didn’t apply earlier because we didn’t need it, but we’d like to apply now because of the job loss or whatever.
He can’t point to any particular story he’s heard or article that he’s read, he just has the general sense that this is the situation.
Any idea if he’s right and we should apply just in case we eventually need to appeal?
*I realize that if we decide unsubsidized federal loans are a good idea we need to submit the FAFSA.
Fill out the FAFSA so that the information from the application will go to the financial aid offices just in case your son is eligible for grants, scholarships and loans from your university.
@millie210 my husband is the opposite of yours. He thinks since we’re never going to qualify for aid anyway, why should we spend any time and effort sending the government all sorts of data about our finances for zero benefit.
The net price calculator says we get zero aid, so what is the upside to spending time on FAFSA? It’s for people who truly can’t make college work for their kids, not people who would have to take 2nd mortagages, etc.
(College tuition is stupidly expensive, by the way. I’m not sure how in the world they get away with it.)
There are a relatively small number of schools that do not allow an application for need-based institutional funds in later years if the student did not apply as an incoming student, regardless of the need at that time. Check the policies practiced by the schools that your son will be applying to.
Also, just because you “can” afford to be full pay doesn’t mean that your son will be completely shut out of need-based aid, especially at the most generous schools. If you aren’t going to go through the paperwork drill, make darn sure that there really is no chance that a particular school will be offering any need-based aid. Don’t simply rely on what the NPC tells you, and understand that getting a definitive answer may mean actually going through the whole application process.
At a lot of schools, in order to be awarded scholarships (and grants/loans, like @“aunt bea” said, you must complete the FAFSA or the CSS. So as much of a pain as it is, we’re sitting down in two weeks to complete them.
What your husband says sounds logical, if job loss is a realistic possibility.
But if imminent job loss is an unlikely scenario, do not apply for aid at any college that is “need aware” during admission. You are pretty sure he will not get aid anyway, so why check off a box that could negatively affect his chances? It is more likely to hurt than help him.
At the need-blind, meets-full-need schools, applying for aid can’t hurt. Except that it is extra paperwork!
Only one of the colleges son looked at that offered merit scholarships required the FAFSA. The others did not.
I second TheGreyKing. If the school is need-blind, you have nothing to lose by applying for aid. Even if you only get a dollar in aid, well, it can’t hurt. If the school is need-aware, on the other hand, don’t apply for aid- you’d have something to lose then.
If the school is need aware and the financial aid department determines that need-based aid will not be offered (and tells this to the admissions office), there shouldn’t be any negative effect on the chance of admission.
For need aware schools…your financial NEED is considered when admissions are considered. If you are full pay, it’s not going to matter that you applied for aid because the school will know you don’t qualify for any need based aid.
You know…you can do the FAFSA and Profile any time during the academic year. If you get laid off from your job, the school is going to require that you show what your new income is…and that would include severance and unemployment or pension income. At this point, you are speculating on whether a job loss would affect need based aid. You know…it might not.
We didn’t qualifynfor a dime of need based aid, but we completed the FAFSA and Profile. Our kids both went to colleges which required this for disbursement of their merit aid…we had to complete freshman year only for one kid, and it changed to that when the other kid was a junior.
We completed the FAFSA every year, because our kids took a portion of the Direct Loan each year.
@makemesmart google the school and “need aware” or “need blind”.
There have been huge discussions here about whether need blind schools really ARE need blind.
Here is my opinion…to be need aware, the college financial aid folks need to communicate a student’s financial need to the admissions department. Frankly, most colleges don’t have the manpower to do that for every student.
At most colleges, the financial aid applications are reviewed in the financial aid department only…with final awards only created for students who are accepted.
We don’t qualify for aid but were pleasantly surprised to find out that D16 got large merit offers from several schools. Had we not filled out the FAFSA and CSS they wouldn’t have been offered. It’s annoying to fill them out and I’m not looking forward to doing it once for each kid this year, but certainly worth it if you get some $.
Anecdotally–we did apply FAFSA/Profile for Kid #1—but not for Kid #2 (b/c we knew we were full pay after Kid#1). Both unhooked. Kid #2 shot way above his stats in acceptances. It seemed to make a difference. BUT, Kid #2 wasn’t applying for T-20 schools. More like T20-T50.
Your husband is smart. Happydad was laid off halfway through Happykid’s junior year, days after I had filed the FAFSA. Based on the new information we provided with the Special Circumstances paperwork, her university was able to completely revise her aid package for senior year, and she was able to graduate with her class.
Filing for aid, that it turns out you don’t need according to a given insitution’s formula, will not mean chances of admission are lowered at a need-aware institution. Actually having significant need is what can affect admissions. So go ahead and do the paperwork this year. Next year you can decide whether or not you need to
If you make more than 300K a year, there is no college that will give you need based aid - so why give them all the financial info if you don’t have to? Most colleges award merit without FASFA, but some require it. Just check the colleges your child is interested in.