Is there a way to get more than 20 schools on the FAFSA?
Thatâs not correct. Schools are free to award aid beyond expected family contribution (now called Student Aid Index). Federal aid is quite limited. Some students will get Pell (and some Pell students may get SEOG). Other than that, the only remaining federal aid is loans and federal work study. Subsidized loans can be affected by SAI; a higher SAI may mean that loans are no longer subsidized for the student ⊠but they can still borrow the same amount in loans, just unsubsidized. The only way that they would get reduced loans would be if they get so much in grants and scholarships that Cost of Attendance less grants and scholarships is less than the annual loan maximum for year in school. And it could result in no work study, but there are usually other jobs available.
In the past, multiple children in college would greatly reduce the EFC for each child. Now, the SAI is not halved for a second child or split into three for three students. But you can request a professional judgment review to ask the school to consider the cost of each additional child in school. Youâll be asked to provide documentation of the cost. This is something everyone with multiple children in school should do, because it might result in more aid. It may not, though, but itâs always worth trying. (And Iâm glad I donât work in financial aid anymore!)
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That might be worth a new thread. I have the same question. I found things on the internet, but the question is, how will it work this year?
Submit it with 20 schools and write down which schools are on that transaction (transaction 1). You need to wait until itâs done processing. At that point, you can go in and edit your FAFSA. Erase all of the 20 schools, then enter your new schools. Write those down, as well. Make sure that you submit your changes (I say this because a lot of times, students think they have submitted their changes, but all they really did was save them). This will be transaction 2. You donât have to keep track & you donât have to erase all of the original schools. However, if there are any issues later with schools making changes to your FAFSA, itâs a lot easier if you know which schools were on what transaction.
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I still can not get a active button to fill out the form. I have logged on periodically all day. Am I on the correct page?
Yeah, itâs not up right now. Late Mornings are the best bet it seems.
You sure? FSA says one definition of an overaward is anytime âstudentâs aid package exceeds their need, including when the studentâs expected family contribution (EFC) is revised upward after initial packaging.â
This also includes any time a private org gives a kid a scholarship. The kid has to report to the school, and the school is required to reduce the aid package if the scholarship puts them below federally calculated EFC. They can do that by taking away your work study, taking away Pell or taking away loans.
The scenario is this: two kids in school. EFC last year was $16k. Now the SAI for each kid is $16k. So family has to come up with 32k total.
The schools are telling them we canât just give you more aid down to the original amount you were paying because it violates the overpayment rule. Even if their daughter went out and found 8k in scholarships, the fed rule says anything that gets family below EFC must be dealt with by reducing aid, either grants, loans or work study. Sheâs already maxed out on subsidized loans so itâd mean taking on an extra 8k a year in unsubsidized loans.
The max for direct loans is $7500 and thatâs for junior and senior year. SoâŠshe canât take out $8000 in unsubsidized loans.
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Thatâs not true. Either the message is getting confused by the recipient or the person giving the message is confused.
EDITED: The school may very well have reduced institutional aid because SAI has doubled. Thatâs not the same thing as not being allowed to award additional aid. As for outside scholarships reducing aid, the aid that is reduced is most likely institutional aid. That is a school policy, not a federal policy. Itâs possible that the increase in SAI means that the schoolâs institutional aid will be decreased because need has been reduced. This is a case where you should request professional judgement to have the cost paid for the other studentâs college considered. I encourage this.
And @thumper1 is correct. If the student has already borrowed $23,000 in subsidized loans, they will have to borrow all unsubsidized ⊠but the maximum annual amount is capped at $7,500.
If this is happening to you or someone you know & you have emails from the school about the situation, please feel free to message me. Iâd be happy to review the communication and provide feedback. Not sure if I posted this in this thread, but I am a retired financial aid director.
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The 20 is actually an âexpansionâ - prior years it was 10. S23 applied to 12 schools and the advice @kelsmom gave is accurate. You just want to make sure that the ones youâre replacing from the original submission have downloaded the information to the school (and email to the school FA office got a quick yes/no for us).
Stupid question (iâm sorry) is the Estimated Student Aid Index an estimate of how much I can subtract from tuition or how much I will pay in total?
Itâs not a stupid question! The answer to your question is no. Itâs simply a number that indicates whether or not you will qualify for a Pell Grant, and it is used when determining eligibility for need based aid (cost of attendance - SAI - grants - scholarships = eligibility for subsidized loans (up to annual limits) snd federal work study (which is school dependent). Schools that award need based institutional aid will use it when awarding grants. They will use cost of attendance - SAI - federal grants (Pell & SEOG) - scholarships to determine how much of their own money to award for need based aid. Very few schools will meet need (defined as cost of attendance - SAI). Most of the time, there will be a gap between the cost of attendance and financial need that is not fully met by financial aid (which is why itâs important to find at least one school you can afford for your list - sometimes that means starting out at a community college).
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Thanks! So would it be correct to say you canât glean much info from the SAI until you get the finanical aid award letter from the college since colleges are so different in how they use that number.
Thatâs correct. If you are a very strong student, looking at schools where you might receive merit is a good strategy. If youâre a good but not outstanding student, avoiding schools that are pretty certain to be too expensive is wise. You can do the Net Price Calculator at each school to get an idea of what your aid will be (with the caveat that if your parents own a business, the NPC may not be as close to your actual aid is it is for those whose income is from an employer).
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YesâŠand see my note from aboveâŠyour filed FAFSA will be submitted to the schools later in January. So you really might need to wait!
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Last question (sorry). If a school gives you a merit scolarship, is it possible they donât give you any need-based aid since the amount they gave you was âcoveredâ by the scolarship. For example, lets say I got a 10,000 scolarship and the SAI was 9,000 dollars. Would they give me 0 need based aid since the scolarship eclipses the SAI amount?
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The fafsa form is available, the buttons are blue and clickable for 2024-2025 if anyone is waiting.
Likely, yes. It would be seen that the expected cost of attendance has been met without Federal Aid.
Yes this is possible. That $10,000 scholarship reduced your need by $10,000, and therefore your need based aid could be reduced.
The exception, I believe might be if you were eligible for any portion of the Pell GrantâŠwhich is an entitlement. @kelsmom