Call the schools on your list and ask if they require CSS for merit. I called fifteen schools (yes S19 is applying to 15 schools!) and asked (1) could we file FAFSA but hold off on CSS until S19’s junior year when will have two in college and (2) if the school has merit, did they need CSS.
Our NPCs all came out well above cost of attendance for all schools so we know we are full pay. We aren’t dying to fill out CSS if we don’t have to. All answers came back the same - fill out FAFSA just in case you want son to take unsubsized federal loan and we can wait until junior year to file CSS. No need to file it for merit. I had heard that some schools won’t let you file CSS after freshman year but I did no find that to be true.
Don’t let people tell you that you will get some need based aid with any particular income. Savings is also a consideration. It’s not our income that is keeping us from need based aid, it’s our savings. Play around with NPCs. Put your real info in and get an answer. Then change things up to see how need based aid is affected. Even when I kept our income the same and cut our savings in half, we still got no aid. I had to cut our savings by 75 percent and add our D21 to the mix before we got any. We won’t come close to spending down 75 percent of savings in the next eight years, so it looks like we won’t get any aid unless my husband loses his job.
My daughter applied to 16 or 17 schools. We are full pay and targeted schools that offer merit. Not one of those schools required FAFSA or CSS to be considered. We thought our daughter might want a student loan at some point so we did end up submitting the FAFSA. It ended up causing a lot of confusion and many phone calls because some schools would not release merit awards because they thought if we filed the FAFSA we were also interested in financial aid and thus the application was incomplete. Most schools do a package of merit and FA. Since you apply every year at most schools it shouldn’t matter if you don’t do the initial report. A few schools will not let you apply for aid if you don’t do the initial FAFSA (one school in our case makes you wait two years not sure on others). We had to write letters to several FA departments to clear things up. Check your schools and see if FAFSA or CSS is required to be considered for merit. If it isn’t I would not bother.
@Veryapparent did you check “no” on the apps when asked if you are applying for need based aid? If you did, it seems odd that the schools were confused!
If you have significant savings in addition to the high income, you might want to save yourself the aggravation of the FAFSA and the cost of the CSS. That does depend on the schools involved, in case any hopeful or expected merit is contingent on completing the forms.
A few of the schools we applied to seemed to suggest filing the FAFSA was a requirement for merit, but calls to the admissions or financial aid offices in every case proved otherwise. We submitted the forms anyway, since we had twins entering at the same time. The only non-merit aid we were offered was in the form of loans we chose not to accept. Unfortunately in the case of both schools, it proved a bit challenging to remove the loans from the package - but I assume most schools would do a better job in that regard.
I’m confused as to why you wanted the loans “removed from the package.” Actually taking the loans requires an affirmative action on the part of the student and/or a parent; simply having loans included in an aid package is not sufficient for the loans to be disbursed and becoming an obligation for repayment. If you don’t want the loans, just don’t take the affirmative action (in the case of federal direct loans, executing the master promissory note). Or are you suggesting that you wanted the loans replaced with some other kind of aid?
No, I’m saying that in one case the school sent us multiple emails directing us in how to proceed with moving forward on the Federal loan process, and in the other case our August bill was even reduced by the amount of the loan, even though we had explicitly instructed them that we were not interested in pursuing it (electronically through their system).
I understand that the loans would have never been disbursed without taking all the necessary proactive steps, but that doesn’t mean the schools had their act together either. We didn’t need the extra stress of having to make multiple calls to the admissions and financial aid offices. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have chosen to skip the financial aid process entirely.
I found the FAFSA incredibly easy to complete now that it links you to the IRS site. We’re full pay, but we have S17 take the subsidized loan as his “skin in the game”.
And imagine our surprise when we got an email a week into the semester this year (his sophomore year) from the financial aid office saying they reevaluated his profile and he now qualified for work study! That put his application for an on-campus life guard job to the top of the pile and got him 10 hours a week at $10/hour.
For my DD who is now a sophomore at LMU, we did have to file a FAFSA for consideration of Merit Aid (and she did get some). Husband was very resistant but it paid off.
Now doing the search with DS…so, it sounds like, for any need-aware schools, our best bet is to call those schools and ask if they require a FAFSA or CSS for Merit Aid consideration, and only file if the answer is yes. Correct?
DS has only started one app so far, Georgetown, and there was a question “Do you plan to apply for financial aid?” I had him answer no as he won’t get merit from Georgetown. But I’m wondering if he will get that question again, and will it be that broad or will it specify “Will you be applying for need based financial aid?” If it is not specified…still not sure how to answer as I don’t want to hurt his chances but also don’t want to turn down any chance at merit aid.
My D17 received merit awards from several schools, including LMU, without ever filing a FAFSA. However, in order to claim her merit award from the school she actually attends, we did have to file it. I filed it after May 1, after we had put down the deposit. Even though her college is a Profile school, we did not ever file the CSS.