@amominaz funny you mention that, I was sort of wondering the same thing that’s why I went and checked all the schools my D is applying to (at least the top 3) and none of them require the FAFSA by 11/1 and I think I might hold off just in case. I think the earliest is 12/15 then the other two are in April if I remember correctly. My older D’s school does require the FAFSA for her merit aid to be renewed each year but it doesn’t impact the scholarships that she already received.
@swtaffy904 I agree that it is confusing. The general consensus seems to be that there are only a few schools that require FAFSA/CSS for eligibility for institutional merit aid, however there doesn’t seem to be a consolidated list of these schools (I assume because it can change without much fanfare… the only school I’ve personally seen mentioned on CC is Brandeis. Santa Clara has two non-need scholarships require FAFSA/CSS - indicating that need is part of the equation - but their other merit scholarships do not ). This means that one either has to contact each school to verify (or take your chances on interpreting their website correctly) OR take no chances and fill out the FAFSA/CSS and open up your financial kimono to all your schools.
I have a friend who is unquestionably out of the running for any need-based aid... and her question is whether it is worth it to file anyway. If the schools are "need-aware", would it help her son for admissions, or is it just an invitation for their finances to be calculated into their merit amounts? She's guessing it means more phone calls regarding donations too.
@dadotwoboys, my understanding of why some schools require FAFSA for merit is that they want to be sure the student doesn’t qualify for a federal Pell grant; a student leaving a Pell grant unclaimed could result in a higher cost to universities that do not stack aid. Say the range of a merit scholarship is up to $15k and the school doesn’t stack aid. If a student qualifies for $5k in Pell grant but would otherwise get the full $15k, then the school only has to provide $10k in merit and can take the $5k from the government. Now, I don’t know how likely it is that a family would qualify for such a large Pell grant but not know about FAFSA, but that was the explanation I was given for why a university might require FAFSA for merit. It is definitely not a universal policy though, and should be checked with each school.
@amominaz, some schools are “need aware” in making admission decisions, so that’s probably what the advisor was talking about. I think there is a place on the Common App where you indicate whether or not you are seeking any financial aid. If you say no, then it won’t matter who receives the FAFSA. I tried to find a list of need aware schools but didn’t have any luck.
I got an answer back from our private CC and she said she doesn’t believe at all that it would negatively impact anything to turn in the FAFSA. As a matter of fact, it may have the potential of helping if the university knows you have the capability of paying. Who knows? I think it’s all some voodoo anyhow.
@chippedtoof like your friend I’m unquestionably out of range for financial aid and the only way I’d have put my financial info into one more hackable database is if S were applying to schools that required FAFSA for merit. There is zero benefit otherwise, and it opens up another point of vulnerability for identity theft. Who needs that? Plus it’s a complete waste of time if there’s no chance of aid.
@suzy100 I’d be curious about “need aware” schools, if you know some. The only school that I’ve heard of that is “need aware” is WashU.
@sushiritto My understanding is that deep down, just about every school is need-aware, at the very least for their developmental cases… For those schools trying to protect their yield, I’d wager that they’d like to fully understand the financial situation for each applicant.
From Lynn O’Shaughnessy:
“Very few schools… can assemble a class without taking the financial wherewithal of at least some of its students into consideration. More common is an industry practice called need aware or need sensitive… For the last 10%, 20%, or 30% or so of slots, however, a school will examine the financial ability of applicants… With this admission approach, the students who are borderline applicants AND financially needy are the ones most likely to be rejected.”
I agree that there is no point exposing your financial data to hacking if not needed. However, in our case here in Florida, the Bright Futures Scholarships require the FAFSA. Bright Futures is for any student who graduated from a Florida high school (or equivalent) and attends a Florida public university. The highest level Bright Futures award pays for full tuition (unless the legislature changes the funding level), regardless of financial need. That makes UF, FSU, etc. pretty attractive. But it’s not the schools in charge of the program, it’s the state and they must have had their reasons to require the FAFSA as an eligibility requirement. Again, I’m no expert, but I know the GCs pound into our heads to complete the FAFSA and apply for Bright Futures to be eligible next year. or if you ever need to transfer back into state from an out-of state school, though I’m even fuzzier on how that works.
@chippedtoof, I get what you’re saying but why is the FAFSA needed for that? If a student does not apply for financial aid at all, then the school can only assume that the family can afford to pay if the student is admitted. If the full pay cutoff income for a school falls in the $200k range, the school doesn’t need to know whether a family makes $250k or $500k or $750k in order to decide whether to admit; they just need to know that the student won’t be requesting any aid. And circumstances can change for many many reasons, so even very wealthy families might find themselves needing financial aid later on.
S18 submitted his 3 applications… Rolling admission at Belmont and EA at Drexel and U of Miami
All three wanted the FAFSA in and the last two wanted the CSS submitted.
The painful wait has begun
@sushiritto, I’m finding it very hard to find a list of need aware schools. Here is an article from 2010 - I have no idea what has and hasn’t changed since then though. https://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/03/23/colleges-where-need-for-aid-can-hurt-admission-odds
It looks like GW got into trouble a few years ago for saying they were need blind for admissions when they were not: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/22/george-washington-u-admits-it-incorrectly-told-applicants-it-was-need-blind
My daughter hit send on 5 applications!
1 ED and 4 EA
Just wanted to shout that to peeps who would get my HAPPINESS they are done and in well before November 1.
And now S18 other college is being interesting. I asked about them accepting 11/4 SAT scores. They said they would, IF we put a rush order on the scores from college board. Sounds like they are setting him up for an expensive rejection.
You’re right @traveler98 , all those that forgo need-based financial aid will be grouped together. I believe we’re full pay according to the NPCs and hence I’m leaning towards not filling it out.
I guess if people who are really affluent filled out a FAFSA/CSS, they’d be more easily identified as potential large donors and could potentially bump us out, but that’s a very remote corner case. I’m sure there are other ways to get noticed by those who handle donations.
@dadotwoboys My sibling’s spouse earned that scholarship and I agree that it’s totally worth the effort. Wish they had it here!
OK, so I now have a question. So if you’re full pay and the schools that your student will be submitting an application and offer merit, but don’t require a FAFSA, then is there any reason to fill it out?
@sushiritto we will not qualify for need based aid even with 3 kids in college at the same time but we file because we have a limited budget and one or more of the kids may want to take out student loans at some point. We are also a single parent income, if something should happen to that income, all the papper work is in place.
Also, if you want to play the numbers game, it may make some sense to take out the loan at a low interest rate (and get your child some credit history) while accruing a higher interest rate on other investments. Something we will be talking about with our FA when we figure out where D18 is going and what it’s going to cost us!
@Booajo You aren’t alone. Don’t forget CC is a self-selected group of Type A people. Lots and lots of kids, my DD included, haven’t submitted a single app yet.