<p>I’ll be starting my last FAFSA/PROFILE in February or March. No hurry, since DS is continuing student. Knocking on wood that our great financial aid will continue for this, the seventh year of kids in college. I CAN’T WAIT until next year, when the end is in sight and there are no more financial aid forms in my future! 
Just hoping Dd doesn’t decide to apply to a law school that requires financial info of parents. She’d be 26, if she applies next year…</p>
<p>Not filing FASFA is a mistake. We do not qualify for any need based FA, not anywhere near it. However, D’s school strongly recommends to file it to receive full range of Merit scholarships. It has worked! I am sure that other colleges have similar policies, but might not communicate it clearly. Not filing FASFA might cause loss of thousands of $$ in MERIT scholarships.
Another somewhat related topic - Merit scholarships for Returning students. Urge your kids to apply to them every year in college. Most of kids do not do it and we missed deadline in one year also. D. received additional $6500 in Merit scholarships when she applied for her sophomore year. It paid for good chunk of her Room & Board (tuition has been covered by renewable numerous Merit scholarships). Application for Returning student Merit scholarships is asking if FASFA has been filed.</p>
<p>edad…Come my way as rates are very reasonable in the KC area! Although today we have negative 4 temp and 3 feet of snow piled beside our mailbox…but you’re used to that right? Very unusual winter for us.</p>
<p>No Fafsa for me…gotta love that…DD’s scholarship doesn’t require one and we don’t qualify for any that do…but the payments continue…no new kitchen countertops for me anytime soon. A 2 inch piece just chipped off yesterday above the dishwasher…guess I’ll get out the superglue :(</p>
<p>I’m the parent of a college senior but I’m holding my breath - will he really finish up this year? What if he needs to do a fifth year. I’ll celebrate not having to do FAFSA when he walks across the stage to get his diploma.</p>
<p>When you mention that Scholarship does not reguire FASFA, how do you know? D. got numerous Merit scholarships (some of them named after patrons) that she had no idea that she would get, she has never applied to them, they are either part of her renewable Merit scholarships package or part of Returning Student Merit scholarships. She has more than 10 of them. I bet you she would have much less if we did not file FASFA. They are NOT need based at all and reguire certain academic standing.</p>
<p>1 more to do, 1 year left to pay for. The day my son is has cut the FINANCIAL umbilical cord from me will be the happiest day of my life. No telling that will come with college graduation in May 2011 or not. But if he can’t get a job when he graduates, ALL I am promising him is food and shelter (in MY house). I do not plan on subsidizing him living elsewhere.</p>
<p>opera-mom, I lived in KC for a year, many years back. That winter, KC had record cold weather. No thanks. Besides that I want to live near deserts, mountains, and majestic national parks. KC is a long way from anywhere except farms.</p>
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<p>I thought the only purpose of the FAFSA was to figure out need. There isn’t anything on it regarding GPA, test scores, etc. Why would your finances have anything to do your daughter getting more academic scholarships? Do you think they looked at FAFSA and saw that you didn’t qualify for anything so they added more merit scholarships? Does your D have a full ride? My son received all of his scholarships with his letter of admission, months before the we had to do the FAFSA.</p>
<p>I contacted son’s college well before application time to find out whether eligibility for merit scholarships required completion of the FAFSA. They were very clear that FAFSA was NOT required unless need-based aid was being requested. So, no FAFSA for me, since it was clear we would not qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>If we ever need a loan, we can get better terms through our local institution.</p>
<p>The upsides to not qualifying for need-based aid:
- No FAFSA or Profile forms to complete
- No disclosure of private financial information
- No worrying and strategizing about how future financial changes might affect EFC or aid
- All merit scholarships are 100% beneficial (no reductions to need-based aid we don’t receive!)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are lots of privates that play games with the prices. They routinely give scholarships in order to make everyone feel like they are getting a good deal. Some seem sleazier than the worst of the used car salesmen. Rather than charge a fair amount for their product, they attempt to get as much money as possible. They like to know all of you financial information. It helps them play the game when they can see your cards.</p>
<p>I have the FAFSA to do for 2 kids, the Profile for 1 of them for 2010-11. (The Profile school has 4 additional forms of their own in addition.)</p>
<p>This is not the last year for me, but this time next year will be! I’m looking forward to getting this year’s done so I can tell myself, “just one more year!” ;)</p>
<p>Toledo,
"Why would your finances have anything to do your daughter getting more academic scholarships? "
- School recommended to file FASFA to receive full range of Merit Scholarships. I am computer professional, so the explanation for that might be that school has a program on thier system that runs FASFA file against Merit Schlarship file. With thousands of applicants and huge number of Merit scholarships available, it is not possible to do matching process by hand. We did not ask question, we just did what was recommended. I am siggesting that other schools might not communicate it clearly and in addition some parents might not pay much attention since the impression is that FASFA is only for need based. FA office at D’s school is definately using it for other (non-need based, Merit scholarships) purposes, as they indicated in thier letter.</p>
<p>^^When our first child applied to college, we did fill out the FAFSA, as at least one college wanted it for merit aid. But the school she eventually went to did not need it for the excellent scholarship she got. Oh well. I recall it as a real PITA form, or maybe I just recall my DH loudly complaining…</p>
<p>MiamiDAP makes a good point. I started another thread on this and another parent responded by saying merit money wasn’t even mentioned until after they filed the FAFSA. Maybe there’s still hope for some of us who can’t prove need.</p>
<p>We were just talking about this the other day - reminded my H that he had to get working on it. Last time for us as D is a junior, but will she have to file it herself if she decides to go to grad school? (Can you tell I leave the FA stuff to him??)</p>
<p>I spoke too soon. Our soon to be 25 year old daughter called us up asking how to fill out the FAFSA for grad school! So much for the year break before we do another one. The good news is that she doesn’t have much stuff to figure out - no house, not much savings to speak of, etc.</p>