Late for Financial Aid

thumper1
Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:49:13 +0000

Since you have to file the FAFSA/CSS/whatever mess every single year, I am sure the college in question would allow you to apply for aid your second year. This question can be more perfectly answered by the University.



You need to contact the college. Is this a school that guarantees to meet full need? Some of them will NOT allow you at APPLY for aid in subsequent years if you don’t apply as an incoming freshman. You have clearly missed that deadline. They may have accepted you with the idea that you would be a full pay for all four years. You need to contact the school.

If you are eligible for federally funded grant money (e.g. the Pell), you would get that regardless in subsequent years…but institutional money is awarded at the discretion of the schools. Contact your college and ask the question.

Is your family income low enough that you would even qualify for need based aid?

And if you really can’t afford the school…you may have to consider another option.

Edit…it looks like you’ve been accepted to Bucknell and Vassar. How will you pay the almost $50K costs of attending either of these schools if you REALLY need aid?

I guess another question is…does your family NEED aid for you to attend these colleges? If so, you might want to consider a gap year…applying to colleges next year, AND getting the financial aid forms DONE ON TIME. Hang onto THIS year’s tax returns because you would be able to use them to do estimated Profile and FAFSA submissions.

BTW…you could have submitted both the FAFSA and the PROFILE using estimates from last year’s tax returns. Your parents should have had some indication of how the 2010 tax year compared to the 2011 tax year by the end of 2011.