<p>You live in town where a lot of people know each other, there are not that many degrees of separation between the person looking at your private information and yourself. That goes for banking, medical, and all sorts of things. So really, privacy comes down to the integrity of those in such positions and it is not always there.</p>
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I don’t actually believe by filing freshman year when you are not qualified for FA will help you to get aid later when you do need it. They are not going to reserve some money for you because you filed. If your financial situation should change in the future, you apply for FA at that time. If they have money then they will give it to you, if you don’t then you’ll be out of luck. By filing in the beginning is not going to give you a jump for later on. The way they are going to see if your family’s financial situation has changed is by comparing year to year tax return and reviewing termination letter if it is lost of a job.</p>
<p>The way it works at a number of schools is that those who apply for financial aid the year before are processed first. That is what JHU specifically says. If you read their FA website carefully, it does not guarantee ANYONE financial aid, or meeting full need, nor does it say that if you do not apply freshman year you are disqualified. Basically, as at most schools, those with prior year aid packages are processed first.</p>
<p>Some schools (and I think but am not sure if JHU is in this bunch) seek to discourage those who apply without asking for financial aid when they may qualify for some, in order to get a slight or maybe more than a slight edge on admissions, and then they apply the following year for aid. If a true change in circumstances has occurred, most schools will take that into consideration in giving aid in years subsequent to the first even when an initial application for need was not filed. They may request information from prior years to see if the student is “playing games” here. If there is a clear change in circumstances, attempts are made to help out the student. </p>
<p>Financial aid officers will also attempt to get aid for students who have some catastrophic event that changes the pciture mid year also. It all depends on what aid is there, and also if there is a dean or advisor at the school to give the fin aid office a call --that can often pave the way more smoothly. </p>
<p>But as far as the confidentiality of all of this info…it all depends on the integrity and close mouthedness of thos who see it.</p>
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I think this is key - you have to have been give aid the first year. If you applied and didn’t get an aid package, you are not going to have priority over someone who applied later. </p>
<p>Student A with family income of 500K, applied for FA first year, didn’t get it because of family income. Student B with family income of 500k, didn’t apply for FA first year. If both students became eligible for FA due to change of family financial situation, there is no reason Student A should have priority over Student B.</p>
<p>It’s not quite that straight forward, Oldfort. If a student who was not on financial aid had an absolutely horrible catastrophe that changed the family financial picture, something that really makes an impact on a counselor, dean, someone in the school, that person would go straight to the front of the line for aid. It really depends on the situation. What JHU and other schools are saying are that Student A would have priority over student B unless some other factor comes to play. What happens at schools that are trying hard to meet most need, but don’t quite have the funds to do so, is that the best aid packages go in a certain listed order unless there is good reason to jack someone up to a higher priority. </p>
<p>What the colleges are really targetting, though they don’t come out and say so, are those families who do qualify for need and hide that info by not applying and get into the school as a non need student at a need aware school. The following year, the student can be outright barred from aid at some such schools if s/he applies and no drastic change in circumstance can be found. I’ve known people here who do this. They run the numbers and see that they could maybe qualify for $5, 10K in need, and would prefer to have their kid evaluated as a non need applicant, and they decide to borrow the money that first year and then apply for financial aid the next year with the kid now already in the school. It screws up the colleges budgets when that is done on a wide scale basis. Those are the culprits that the policy targets.</p>
<p>"“whether you are likely to benefit from filing” is a completely separate question from “where might the data end up”. "
-It is not entirely separate as both are part of risk / benefit analysis. If there is strong anticipation of Merit awards and if school says that they need your FASFA for that, then at least you have some reason to think about filing. If you believe that the kid will not qualify anywhere close, then why bother if there is a risk of info being leaked. Again, the same for need based. And a third group might be in position to feel that no money at all, not even hundreds of thousands will justify risking your identity being stolen. This group should not apply under any circumstances, no matter who is “pushing” them, it is nobody’s business after all, it is up to a family to decide.
I would not worry too much about college budgets. Vast majority of D’s Merits were from Private donors (at state public) and a bit was from our state, I cannot remember any from college actually, except in last 2 years, some departments are in position to award departmental Merits to top Juniors, but primarily to Seniors and this varies greatly from department to department in the same school.</p>
<p>My friend’s son was offered a very nice athletic scholarship at a LAC. They didn’t file a FAFSA because they had a high income, and they lost the scholarship. This particular school required everyone on ANY type of scholarship to file a FAFSA - something they only realized afterward.</p>
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<p>You can always file for federal state aid and will receive it if you are eligible. Schools who take a now or never approach to request for aid, only mean this in terms of their own institutional aid. At many schools, this policy is for international students especially because schools have very limited funds when it becomes to providing aid.</p>