Just wondering…is there any sense in doing the FAFSA if you’re pretty sure your EFC will be $60K?
Is it required for any merit scholarships or anything like that?
My understanding is that it is required. Period. Unless you are a cash pay. And maybe even then.
its “required” only if ou want to be considered for aid. You won’t get a stafford loan or parent plus without it. That said, take a look at the tables in this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2016/01/30/2016-guide-to-college-financial-aid-the-fafsa-and-css-profile/
Really too vague of a question. CSS Profile is way more complicated than FASFA but is what most privates require. FASFA at a state school is not worth it way below $60k EFC. On the other end, it’s definitely worth seeing at a generous school like Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.
It is not required for merit aid: those are based on academic achievement alone. I wouldn’t bother based on the info. you provided. My D goes to in state flagship university and we are self pay. I understand that if your income is in the six digits, don’t even bother, so we didn’t. Also, I understand the FAFSA is quite onerous, intrusive and time consuming. No thank you. Unless you have multiple kids in college at once, or extenuating circumstances, it is a waste of time imo. Perhaps for private colleges, it may be more worthwhile, but I don’t even know if that makes a difference. Ohio State, for example, used to require all parents of freshmen to complete it. Now they do not, so they must have had a lot of complaints of it being a total waste of time!
@UCFin2018 where did you get this information?
The fafsa is NEVER required. You only need to fill it out if you want to see if you qualify for need based aid…or went the Direct Loan.
Some schools do require it for merit aid.
But if you don’t want any kind of financial help…you never are required to complete a FAFSA.
Yes, if you are looking for merit aid, some schools will require it, other’s won’t. My daughter’s college is one that did not require it for merit aid. Some of the schools my son is looking into do. If you are hoping merit is part of the package, I recommend looking at the school websites. Most information is available there or you can call.
I said…unless you are a cash pay. Most, if not all, universities will require it for grants or merit scholarships, regardless of need. The “maybe even then” was sarcasm.
This is NOT true.
For need based grants, yes…the FAFSA will be required.
For merit scholarships…the fafsa is required at SOME colleges but not ALL colleges. In fact…most colleges don’t require a FAFSA for merit scholarship consideration.
@UCFin2018 there are many schools that give merit scholarships without requiring the FAFSA - of the 4 schools that gave my daughter merit scholarships only one of them required us to complete the FAFSA
No. This is false.
OP, the income level is “I can pay for the full COA without any aid- including loans.”
My kid is applying to 10 schools that offer merit aid and none of them require that we apply for financial aid. So certainly not “all.”
Don’t bother at 6 figures – no. Stanford offers full tuition need-based aid for up to $125K. (or at least that’s my recollection when they first announced that a few years ago. I doubt it’s gone down. Might have gone up.)
I think the cutoff for don’t bother at all is closer to double that. But best to check a bunch of NPCs and make sure.
I know someone who never filed a FAFSA for her children because she didn’t want her sons to register for selective service. I told her it was against the law not to register but she could afford full pay regardless and opted not to. Her sons are now past 26 and unlikely to ever need financial aid so they never got in trouble. OTOH, all 4 of my sons are registered for Selective Service but I got very little FA over the years.
With regard to the original question, I think it depends on what schools you are applying to. I can pretty safely say that an AGI in the low 100’s doesn’t get you squat at SUNY.
The FAFSA is also required for student loans, if your student needs one.
Just wondering…is there any sense in doing the FAFSA if you’re pretty sure your EFC will be $60K?
Yes. If there is any change in circumstance (lost job, death, etc) without a FAFSA on file you can not appeal for a Professional Judgment review based on the changed circumstances.
Is it required for any merit scholarships or anything like that?
Some colleges require FAFSA for consideration in merit awards. (It depends on the school).
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/fafsa-required-for-merit-aid-hopeful/
The FAFSA isn’t that hard. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool will be back on-line after 19/1 so it be very easy again.
Several of the schools my D applied to (including the school where she ended up) required that the FAFSA be filed in order to even consider the student for merit aid.
One school our daughter visited for an overnight had a session for parents about finances. My H and I attended it while our D went to other sessions. The speaker said explicitly that students who didn’t submit the FAFSA would not be considered for merit aid.
On the other hand, several other schools where our D was accepted offered her substantial merit aid with the acceptance letter, before she even filed her FAFSA.
You need to find out the policy of the schools where you want to apply. It would be unfortunate to miss out on merit aid for want of filling out a form. The FAFSA is not that difficult to fill out.
So the right answer is: research what your targets say about the requirements for merit aid. Don’t assume.
The Fafsa is simple. You need to collect the info, but actually filing is easy. The CSS can be the headbanger, depending.
And no, “anything six digits” isn’t a reasonable limit in deciding to file. You can run the Net Price Calculator for each college and see what you might get. Why not try this, rather than guess? (It’s best for non divorce, no self employment income.)There is also a Fafsa Forecaster tool. It runs a little low, but gives an idea.
Prior to the NPC, many spoke on CC of getting good aid at over 100k in income.
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/troyonink/files/2017/01/2017-EFC-Table.png. Reposting this table. Very helpful quick reference guide by a well known individual knowledgeable in college FA.
Pretty good, jym. Folks should remember that certain assets and a few other factors also come into play.