<p>My son is a rising high school senior. We have savings for approx. 2 to 3 years of college. Should we apply for financial aid when he first applies to college? Will it hurt us if we wait to apply for aid until we really need it? We have a second child who will overlap one year of college with him so we will be stretching the savings at that point.</p>
<p>First run calculators on this site or College Board to see if given the savings you will qualify for aid. At schools that are need aware, it could hurt your kids’ chance of getting in if you apply for aid, so you probably don’t want to apply if you won’t get any or anything significant to you.</p>
<p>At some schools if you don’t apply for aid as a freshmen, you’ll never get aid. So do ask each school your kids are applying to what their policy on this is.</p>
<p>hmom5, are you suggesting that even if you don’t qualify for financial aid (that is, if your EFC is higher than the COA), your child’s chances of admission could be hurt simply because you apply for FA?</p>