<p>I am concerned about some advice given by my sons gc. He believes that everyone regardless of income and assets should apply for financial aid. We are an upper middle class family. The challenging part is unless your really really rolling in it…who has an extra $50,000 lying a round to pay for college year after year, and when we end up having two kids in at once, then what? I know that schools say they practice need blind admissions, however if my son checks the “candidate for financial aid” box on the applications, soley for the purpose of finding out after all the calculations have been made, if you qualify. Does it hurt their chances of getting in? We have already planned to scale back our lifestyle to make an effort to pay for our son’s tuition possibly utilizing some loans…but what about when we have two in college? Help! Who should be applying for financial aid? Sounds like a stupid question but the GC says everyone!</p>
<p>Everyone should apply to FAFSA. The GC has it right. What if the breadwinner(s) of your family lose their jobs in the middle of his school year? You can’t afford the tuition but you can’t get financial aid either because you haven’t filed. If you have two kids in college why wouldn’t you want to apply for financial aid?</p>
<p>Some colleges require FAFSA for ANY financial aid, whether need-based or merit. I really don’t think checking that box will have any effect upon acceptance. At least I have not heard of any problems.</p>
<p>I agree with the GC. EVERYONE should fill out the FAFSA. It is required at some schools for merit aid as well (we have to do it every year for DS’s merit aid renewal). Some schools say that if you don’t apply for finaid your freshman year, you cannot be awarded school based aid in subsequent years. And as mentioned above, if your family has financial hard times… you’ll be happy that the FAFSA is already on file so that the school can consider finaid due to special circumstances.</p>
<p>You should also be aware that unless you complete the FAFSA, your family is not eligible for the Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program, one of the most advantageous ways for a family to borrow to finance college costs.</p>
<p>GT:</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Most schools – but not all – ARE needblind. In those cases, it matters not if you check the FinAid box. However, for schools that are not completely needlblind…the FinAid box may play a role on borderline candidates only.</p>
<p>To get an idea of whether you might qualify for need-based aid, try the EFC calculator on this board, or on the Collegeboard website. Even folks with income over $100k may qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>Also, as CollegePan notes, the low interest federal loans require fafsa.</p>
<p>Hi letitbe,</p>
<p>welcome to CC</p>
<p>I agree with your GC and the other posters… Never eliminate your self from the financial aid process because different schools use different methodologies to determine aid (especially insitutional methodologies where schools vary in terms of size and resources available.</p>
<p>Even if the college is not needblind rather need-aware or need sensitive who needs money ends up becoming an issue when the college is pretty much running out of funds and it comes down to 2 similar candidates. If candiate A needs $5000 and candidate B needs 20,000 then candidate A would get the nod.</p>