Do colleges download the FAFSA?

Paying for College
1

I am applying to over 10 schools.

I am basically trying to find a school that will offer a better COA for me than a very terrible school that my parents are threatening to send me to. Even they agree that it has a very unhealthy culture and bad academics however it could very well be the most affordable.

I researched basically every college in America with a halfway decent computer science program. I have about 8 that I like a lot. The rest are all financial safeties, most of them with free applications. I am just hoping that one of my safeties will give me a better financial aid offer so I can stop worrying about the aforementioned terrible but cheep school.

I am just trying to figure out how to get my FAFSA to each of them considering the 10 school limit.

Is it true that as soon as I have a financial aid report they have downloaded the FAFSA and will not need it again?

My big problem is I am going to try to negotiate financial aid at some of the schools and I don’t know if I have to keep them listed while I do so.

Is it appropriate to ask the college if they have downloaded it?

2

Colleges can and will download your FAFSA when you apply to them. It may take a few days after submission of your application, but they definitely will.

3

Once your FAFSA is processed, you can go in…delete schools…add schools and submit.

Free advice.

  1. Some schools will NOT reconsider a financial aid offer at...all.
  2. Some schools will only look at your offer again if there has been a significant financial crisis that was not initially reported on your forms.
  3. Some schools...actually ALL schools...will only look at the offers you have gotten from peer schools...so you can't expect Yale to up an offer to match Ohio State, for example.
  4. At schools that will reconsider...the amount will also be considered. At some places, you moghtmget $2000, but you won't get $20,000 more.
  5. When you go for reconsideration (schools do not negotiate...this is not a car sales deal), you will need your financial aid offers from the other school...and the REASON you need more aid. And you need to plan to attend THAT college if they up the aid.
4

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1946411-how-to-be-polite-and-talk-about-getting-more-financial-aid.html#latest

And read this thread of yours. It addresses the negotiations part of your post.

Your dad is a doctor. If his salary is typical of most doctors with 18 year olds…you won’t be getting need based aid.

Colleges do NOT “negotiate” merit aid.

You seem to be adding Cornell and Northwestern to your list. Cornell and Northwestern give ONLY need based aid. No merit.

5

What is the “terrible”, but “cheap” school?

It might not be as bad as you or your parents think it is.

6

You posted this about WPI. So…what’s wrong with WPI.

7

The terrible school is PLU.

I have heard nothing good about its computer science program and am constantly hearing terrible stories about the kinds of students that attend there. I would not fit in and my religious and political ideology would be shunned by most students there.

I LOVE WPI! It is on my top 4. Unfortunately even with that generous merit scholarship I am still at a very high tuition and housing. Over double what my sister convinced parents to pay for. I am going to talk to them and see if I can get that number down. I need to get a better feel of what I can make on internships and co-ops. Also am looking at maybe getting a job. I don’t qualify for a federal one but maybe I can find something.

It isn’t helping that my sister is sorta in scholastic limbo. I am not sure anymore wether she is going to be a music major, physicist, teacher, or go to law school. She certainly isn’t helping me convince parents that college is a good investment.

I am starting to agree that my parents should be able to pay more for college. I have convinced them to look at monthly expenses in order to negotiate aid. Perhaps they will find that they can do more.

I also need to figure out loans. Patents haven’t decided if they will count federal subsidized/unsubsidized loans as subtracting from COA. In my opinion it is a bad idea not to consider loans. Hopefully I can convince them to let me take out loans to subtract from the coa for schools.

I also looked at our Internet and phone plans and figured out how to save 1-3k a year without loosing quality. Perhaps that will give me some kudos.

Is there any way to tell when my fafsa has been downloaded?

8

It takes several days sometimes for the FAFSA to be processed. Once processed, you can do the deleting and adding of schools.

Again I ask…on what basis do you think you can “negotiate” financial aid with any of these colleges? ANY of them.

The first in line to pay for college…your family. The parent income…and to some degree assets…are the primary drivers of need based aid. Your family expenses, debt, money use choices,etc. are not considered…at all…in the equation.

Loans? You can take out the $5500 Direct Loan for freshman year in your name only. Beyond that amount…either your parents will need to take out the loans…or cosign them…for all four years…will they do this?

As you have noted…even WPI is not affordable…even with their merit award. What makes you think other schools will be?

9

These are ALL very expensive private universities. Your FAFSA EFC is $35,000. These schools all use the Profile as well. The Profile takes a much more in depth look at your finances than the fafsa. As a business owner, and doctor, your institutional calculated family contribution could actually be higher than $35,000 a year…but it’s not very likely to,be less.

The schools will NOT give you need based aid to cover their calculated family contribution. Period.

You have a sister in college…so presumably you indicated that on your FAFSA, and with the NPCs you used. This means that overall…your total EFC for TWO kids is $70,000 ($35k each) or more. This means your family annual income is likely in the $250,000 a year range…or higher. Right?

10

Colleges won’t care what your parents’ expenses are unless they’re medical bills. Even schools that will compare offers from peer schools have limits.

Northeastern calculated that your family can pay $65k/year and your parents’ limit is $15-20k. There is no amount of negotiation that will close a $45-50k gap.

Your dad is a doctor who owns part of his practice. I wouldn’t expect any need based aid from most schools, and I don’t think colleges negotiate merit aid at all. Did you apply to any schools that offer guaranteed merit?

11

P.S. You seem pretty concerned about the fafsa. Hope you are completing the Profile as well.these schools ALL require the Profile for consideration for institutional aid…except Princeton which has its own form to do innaddition to the fafsa.

Remember, your dad’s income matters…but so does your mom’s. And some of these schools WILL consider primary home equity as well.

The schools really won’t care about your debt. Or other expenses. If you have a large mortgage, that is viewed as a choice. If you have car payments…that’s a choice. If you have credit card bills…again choice. Everyone has loving expenses…so those aren’t considered either.

12

Wait… your father is a doctor (highly educated), and he’s not sure that college is a good investment?

13

http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx

The following schools are one the list of ABET accredited programs for computer science in Washington state:

Eastern Washington University
Gonzaga University
Pacific Lutheran University
Washington State University
Western Washington University

PLU is included in that list. Pick the most affordable of these.

14

Ok…for comparison.

PLU tuition and fees is $39,000 plus, and room/board is $10,000 plus. So let’s say $50,000 a year.

EWU is $8000 tuition fees, and $9600 room and board for say $18,000 a year.

Are you saying your parents will pay the full cost for you to attend PLU? It’s over $50,000 a year.

15

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My big problem is I am going to try to negotiate financial aid at some of the schools and I don’t know if I have to keep them listed while I do so.


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No, you don’t. Once they receive FAFSA info, it doesn’t matter if they’re no longer listed.

Please stop. You’re not going to get the need-based aid you want no matter what you show the schools unless your dad has Stage 4 cancer and $100k+ in uncovered med bills…or something like that.

You need to deal with reality.

You have a 33 ACT and a top GPA.

You have a sibling going to college next year as well???

Is the EFC for each child around $35k? (But that doesn’t include dad’s business)

How much will parents pay for each child per year?

You’re instate for UWash?

16

Ok, I should probably update my college list. I finalized my list. As thumper1 says I realized many of those schools were way too expensive especially relative to my interest in them.

Top 4 (in no order):
-WPI
-University of Washington. NOTE not getting freshmen admission into CS would make this school significantly less attractive {applied}
-Carnegie Mellon {applied}
-Northwestern {applied}

Favorites:
-Northeastern
-Cornell {applied}
-Champlain (free app)
-Rensselaer {about to apply}
-University of Michigan Ann Arbor {about to apply}

Good:
-Georgia Tech {applied}
-Rochester Technical Insitute {applied}
-Rose-Hulman (free app)
-Ursinus College (free app)

Dislike:
-Knox (free app)
-Michigan Tech {almost done applying} (free app)
-Colorado School of Mines {applied} (free app)
-PLU (free app)
-Washington State University

Not sure how to feel yet:
-Virginia Tech {about to apply}
-Case Western (free app)
-Truman State (free app)

@thumper1 Sorry, can I just confirm. I just have to wait for the processed confirmation? At that point all the schools on the list got a copy of the FASFA whether or not they took any action with my FAFSA? I can then safely send it to the next batch?

Also PLU gave me a really great financial aid offer. It still isn’t where my parents say they can pay but its the best offer.

Frankly my parents have way unrealistic expectations of what they should be paying for college especially considering our income. Last I heard they plan on paying 20k a year. However I am fairly sure I can convince them to go higher (maybe even up to 30k if I am super lucky).
There also is the problem of my sister not being able to go to Baylor because of financial reasons. She still is frustrated about that. Granted she changed her major over the summer and probably wouldn’t have ended up happy over there anyways.

I don’t think or expect any of the schools on this list to be affordable. That is why I am applying to a lot of them. I am trying to
A. Roll the dice that I get good merit aid or other scholarships line up well.
B. Help my parents realize what is reasonable to pay for college (the more schools that have around the same COA the less it looks like any one of them is ridiculously expensive) (Yes, I agree this is probably a bad idea that won’t work out. But it something I can try).

Also, yes the CSS is VERY bad for me. It is super unlikely I will be able to afford them. However things like the Scholarship for Service (at some of the schools) may help even things out.

I am not expecting anything out of negotiations except to try. Champlain especially has seemed willing to at least discuss it. I am just trying everything I can despite how hopeless it may be.

I realize most likely I will end up at UW and I am mostly fine with that. I am just trying to give my chances of going somewhere else a better shot. My biggest issue with UW is its size. Academics/research/opportunity are all solid. I am just hoping to be a part of more of a community.

@BelknapPoint The problem is not convincing them that college is a good investment. It is difficult to convince them that going to a more costly college is a good investment. I completely agree that after your first job what college you went to doesn’t matter really, but I have always cared more about the journey than the destination. I have seen course catalogs for other schools and know for a fact that I would come out of there knowing a TON less, especially about topics that I am super interested in.
Also I think getting a batchelors from a better school helps with masters program admissions

@mom2collegekids Sorry for the earlier confusion. Yes I am in-state for Washington school.

Financial stats:
Starting point for amount parents are willing to pay for college for me (this should be haggled): 20k
Sisters out of pocket cost for attending school: 25k (note this is somehow going down by 5k next year)
FAFSA EFC: 35k (for just me I think)
CSS EFC: Above cost of tuition, room, board and everything at just about every school.

Income is a very complicated question.
2014 not reported on FAFSA: 350k
2015 on current FAFSA: 150k

I am still trying to wrap my head around why this is because I would say 2014 was a significantly more financially stressful year than 2015. In 2014 we got some sort of government reward for following some new policy with electronic records. But most of the money had to go back into the business and we got knocked into a higher tax bracket. Income is predicted to go down from 2015. We are never financially stable enough to know until December. The was medical insurance is going right now is significantly not in favor of pediatricians.

17

Most of your schools are privates that don’t give merit, and you won’t qualify for much need based aid.

Or they are OOS publics.

What happens if your dad makes $400k next year, or when your sister graduates? Or is she starting college in the same year you do?

What matters is not the COA, it is the Net Price your family has to pay. Most of the schools will base their aid on the CSS profile, not the FAFSA.

Did you run net price calculators on college websites with two and one in college, and with $150k income and $400k income?

What are the net prices for these schools? And what is your dad saying about how much he will pay for you and your sister per year?

18

@mommdc, OP has said his parents will pay $15-20k/year. He hopes to convince them to pay $30k, but the chances of that seem remote. I’m not sure he has any financial safeties on his list.

19

I thought I did have financial safeties. A couple of those I pulled right off of best value colleges lists. I did however screen out schools that didn’t seem to have computer science programs that were better than PLU’s since that is the “school to beat”.

My dad will likely not have an increase of income, especially not one that humongous unless something unexpected happens with the business as a whole (being bought up by a larger company, change in insurance practices etc). A lot of times income increases are because the government has given money to incentivise them to pay for changes they are pushing so the increase isn’t really usable.

My sister may be graduating in 2 years. However, she also might go on to a masters program or need continued financial assistance to get established. If she goes the law school path I think that takes awhile.

I did run some NPC’s. The bulk of them print out a decently lower number them what I have been getting from schools (± 5-15k).

And @austinmshauri is correct. I don’t exactly know what bargaining power I really have. I transferred from a private Christian school to a public school saving them roughly a total of 70k dollars over the years (mind you I did this not for financial reasons at the time. The private school was full of kids and teachers who didn’t care so I left). Unfortunately despite my hopes and instructions, I do not think they saved that money for my college fund. Still, I think I can make a good argument that I deserve more than my sister for tuition since she did private school for all years of high school. She also noted that the school was lacking but instead chose to pay full tuition to take 2 classes there (and commute to the local public school for the rest) so she could be with her friends.
Also I know what I want to do in college, probably already have enough skills to get a decent job doing it, and am going into a promising field with a good salary. Hopefully, they realize that paying for my college really isn’t a super risky investment.

20

Who is paying the $50,000 a year cost to attend PLU?