Long-time stalker, first-time poster here. My D is in her first year at a UC here in CA (resident). We submitted the FAFSA last year, but because of our income and assets (mostly this), she did not qualify for any financial aid (other than loans - no thanks). My question is: do we bother submitting the FAFSA again this year? She has no ongoing merit scholarships. I know we are to use 2015 tax returns for income on the FAFSA this year, but nothing has changed dramatically with regard to income, and the assets (other than the college account being drained by first-semester tuition/housing) haven’t changed much. In other words, between last year and this, we have been fortunate enough not to have experienced any major downturns in our ability to pay the full cost and don’t anticipate this being the case. Is there any scenario where NOT submitting the FAFSA for the next academic year could hurt us, given what we know? I want to avoid doing a bunch of work that will be for naught in the end, but I don’t want to be stupid. Thanks!!!
You can always file the FAFSA later if you find you need the loans or if some scholarship comes along that requires it. You can file the FAFSA for 2017-18 until June 2018.
If she doesn’t want a loan then no reason to file FAFSA.
Many full pay families will file FAFSA because some merit-based awards depend on them. If your D has no merit-based awards and doesn’t anticipate getting any, don’t bother.
It’s your choice. It isn’t going to take you very long to file the fafsa.
But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
I don’t mean to derail your thread but I am laboring over the same issue with the CSS Profile. Son applied to a dozen or so schools and only ONE school wants the CSS. The school is near the bottom of his list. Without CSS he is guaranteed to get no financial aid. Not sure if I should bother. I’ll probably wait it out.
Do the Profile. What happens if your kid decides he wants to go to THAT school? That could happen. Unless he has already been accepted to a few places he likes…you never know…this school could rise up on the list.
We stopped after the first time or two. Even though it wasn’t too painful, there was no point in doing it since the outcome was pretty much known.
I am in the same situation. I will not file either of them. Just wonder if it will affect admission though.
Financial aid applications do not affect admissions at all in most cases…as most schools are NEED bowline for admissions…the admissions office has no idea if youmwven complwted a financial aid form.
At schools that are need aware, it will be assumed that you are a full pay family. This actually could help your kid a tad in admissions at some need aware schools.
@GR3, if I remember correctly, you are in PA. We didn’t qualify for Pell, but we qualify for PHEAA grant. It can be used for housing expenses.
I know you mentioned an older D, if you have two in college, if there is a chance you might qualify, it might be a good idea to file FAFSA.
Full pay parent here for a UC and CSU. Filed the FASFA the first year for each son, but not since due to our EFC. Agree with most posters that it is up to you. Not worth my time.
My son couldn’t register at a CSU until we submitted it freshman year - i think i updated it once but, not since.
I actually found filling out the CSS helped me gather the info I needed for the FAFSA as it was EXTREMELY thorough in getting our financial picture. It had a helpful step-by-step explanation of every number they want, which helped me understand the FAFSA more. Updating it is more of a pain than the FAFSA (having to adjust a hard copy and get it the schools that are requiring it), but that was just me.
We will likely never qualify for FAFSA even when we have three in college at the same time but we plan on doing FAFSA every year so the kids have the option of a loan if they should want to take one.
Thanks, all. I won’t bother unless the need arises at some point in the future. It’s good to know that the FAFSA window is open for quite a while for the academic year.