I would submit it, lest they think it was way under. After all, one out of every four honors college students had a worse SAT than she did!
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So there is a new FAFSA that is released on December 1, 2024. The current one is not applicable, correct?
We also will not qualify for any financial aid, but if there is any possibility of merit, we’ll take it.
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My understanding is that nothing can be filled out before 12/1. I’m not sure this one will be different from last year, though.
There are some students who are eligible for a test of the new FAFSA before 1 December, but that’s on a very limited invite-only basis—and AIUI if you haven’t already been invited you are unlikely to be.
So yeah, unless you already know otherwise, the 2025–2026 one isn’t available til 1 December.
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I created a login last night and saw the above information on the FAFSA site. I started in the 24-25, but the first question was “what year of college will your child be for the 24-25 year?” and only college freshman and above were the answers. So, that’s not us.
I marked the calendar for December 1. At least it is a Sunday.
We submitted in that exact scenario. No idea if it’s the right call but that’s what we did on the advice of the HS counselor.
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Hi all, general question. DS25 got accepted in one of in-state schools. This is his first acceptance. Should he let the teachers who gave LORs (this school did not need them though) and counselor know of this? Or, should he wait for more decisions and then let know after committing… will it be too late? He still has more applications with RD yet to be submitted. Thanks
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I would submit.
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The national match system is EXACTLY what I have proposed. Just have kids list something like 15 schools and have the schools reject or accept them quickly then move on. Perhaps there can be limits on how many one can list in a given bucket in a match so people don’t just list all the top universities hoping for a match then go down a pecking order so it’s more akin to 5 reaches, 5 targets, 3 matches, 2 safeties.
In the end it will all work out but right now it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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We are on a case-by-case basis for CSS and/or FAFSA. At first, we weren’t going to apply for FA at all because the NPCs sure didn’t indicate we’d qualify, but given that we own our own business and the NPCs weren’t capturing that well, we’re reconsidering applying for some of the schools on S25’s list, and most definitely will complete them for those who link any merit aid to completion of those forms.
This is a crazy week. S25 changed his ED choice again! And looking at his app, he still has quite a bit of work to do by Friday. In some ways, it’s good that I am out of town, I guess, but gosh, I wish I could get a better idea of where his thoughts are about all this right now and how he came to this conclusion! I really have to work on trusting his process and I need to be careful that I don’t come across as second-guessing him when I ask him questions about it. These feel like such high-stakes decisions in some ways, and I’m the kind of person who likes to feel like I’ve looked at the options from every possible angle before deciding on what looks to be the best option. He, however, is much more comfortable with prioritizing one or two metrics and then dealing with whatever doesn’t go well after the fact. I’ll be happy when this week is behind us, and I really think he should take a short break from all of it for a week or two before continuing his work on his RD apps. And I fully expect there to be a LOT of pushback on the need to do a few more of those. I might have to increase the frequency of my ice cream purchases or possibly upgrade to Ben & Jerry’s to get those done…
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Will the rest be RD vs. EA? We are doing EA but a couple have rolling admissions. RD will be what we do if the EAs don’t pan out well as in doesn’t get in, or financially the merit doesn’t work out either.
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Amen!
Taking a breather and resetting is probably a great idea.
After Nov 1st D25 has 2 apps due by Nov 15 and 1 due by Jan 3 (I think). I’m encouraging her to take a week or so off from thinking about this before the Nov. 15 apps are due. Also, hopefully before then, she will have received an acceptance or two which might help put the final push in a positive light.
Would these be “new” apps that he has not yet decided (or knows) about yet or are these apps that had been on the radar all along? I keep thinking that D25 should add 2 or 3 schools outside of the pool she had committed two months ago, but I don’t really have any idea what I would suggest. Her current pool is almost solely large flagships with the exception of her ED and her lone RD school. She will not consider LACs so, pretty much anything else I could think of would just be another large flagship which she has plenty of.
I’ve suggested a WashU, Rice, Vandy, etc. but D25 has rejected those for various reasons (too close, Texas, I’ve taken a class from there before and so why would I want to do that again) and that is ok. But now I don’t really have anything else to suggest that she add to her RD list. And that’s probably ok too.
Might as well wait. Informing after every acceptance is a bit much, and it’s more fun to be able to say where the actual destination will be.
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I am so annoyed with myself right now. S25 got an invite to be a beta tester for the new FAFSA and apply early last week from one of the schools that had a 10/15 EA deadline. I saw it mid-last week and intended to do it over the weekend, just needed to dig out my tax returns and block the time. Suffice to say, I didn’t do it over the weekend. Finally sat down to do it today, and realized there was more prep work. Ok, no problem, had the time. Got S25 all set up with his FAFSA ID, doublechecked to make sure my old one still worked, got all the paperwork… then realized I had to apply to be considered a potential beta tester. Ok, went to fill out that form… to realize the deadline was yesterday.
Dammit. Not that this makes a huge difference. Or probably any difference. But for at least a few scholarships he’s applying for, he needs to fill out the FAFSA, and I wanted to get it done early as I know winter break is going to be a whirlwind of other stuff.
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@Oja272 He has done the other two EA applications already thankfully. He could apply EA to his in-state option, but he has moved them to the RD pile, and frankly, I doubt he’d be able to complete their supplementals by the Friday deadline anyway.
@MidwestPack I hear you on getting positive news so they can enter this last stretch feeling good about where things stand. The RD ones aren’t new apps, but for the most part they are schools that don’t offer EA as an option (except for his long-shot Yale, and I don’t think their SCEA option would ever have worked for him tbh, and his in-state option that he has punted to RD). I did suggest expanding the RD list again in case his ED/EA options don’t work out as hopes, or even visiting some of the ones on his RD list that we just weren’t able to get to because of our schedules, but he is not interested. Prime example of when I need to step aside a bit and trust his process. It sounds like your daughter is pretty clear about what she wants though, and that’s great!
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I don’t know which state that is but in recent cycles it has become very difficult to get accepted into state flagships that offer EA if not applying that round.
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As if the senior year and all it entails isn’t stressful enough…
I just spent the last hour with S25’s school on code red lockdown. It’s all turned out ok, but yesterday a student was found with a gun off campus, and then today the school got a report of a student on campus with a gun.
No firearm found on the student on campus, so that’s a relief. And I got to text with S25 as soon as got news of the lockdown: he was in a safe classroom, but was clearly worried.
They have school off Friday for the end of the quarter, and I think it will be a really good break for everyone.
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I’ll ask him to check with his GC about this, since that would be a really unpleasant reality check. I don’t think he knows anyone that’s been rejected from his state flagship with his stats though, which is fueling his push to move it to the RD round. But there’s a first time for everything, and I’d hate for him to be the first one.
Well, C25 has 5 of 7 applications completed and submitted. The other 2 have a due date of Nov 15, so they’re taking a little break before doing those. Only one of the schools wants the CSS & FAFSA – all the rest are FAFSA only. I haven’t had to do the CSS before, so I’m a little scared, but I figure we’ll make a start on it this weekend and try to get it knocked out before the stated Dec 1 deadline for ED. (Of course, it’s for the school C25 has ranked top of list and is going ED for, so we gotta get it right!)
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Hi All,
I wanted to throw out a thank you to the thread re potentially needing the CSS profile if you hope to get merit aid. That had not occurred to me. I checked and it seems that none of D25’s schools require the CSS for merit aid. But, could have easily been the other way around.
Again, thank you all for raising the issue.
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