This from a Case Western email.
Please note, families who anticipate applying for financial aid at any point during xxxx’s undergraduate career must complete our financial aid application requirements for the student’s first year in order to be eligible for need-based financial aid in subsequent years.
They need to be clearer. They must allow students to file for federal aid at any time. I assume they mean that students won’t be eligible for institutional need based aid if they don’t apply as an incoming student. Same with Case. But need based federal aid in this case would just be Pell, assuming the family would qualify, which doesn’t go far at expensive private schools. So filing as an incoming student, even if you’re sure you won’t qualify for need based aid, is wise.
Had the same question. Decided to file FAFSA but not CSS. Here’s my logic.
We will not qualify for financial aid. However you need to file FAFSA if you want to apply for a federal student loan. In addition, you will be outta luck if your circumstances change (job loss, death, etc.) because you cannot amend FAFSA unless it was filed by the deadline.
As for CSS, it was only required by the 2 private colleges (student applied mostly to flagship state schools). So we will pass as there is zero chance these schools will provide financial aid and FAFSA will be sufficient to cover federal/parent loans.
My daughter’s university (Virginia Tech) requires that we fill the FAFSA annually in order to claim and retain her annual merit award but does not require the CSS. Back when she was applying and we had submitted the FAFSA to all of her colleges (wasn’t sure what to do since we didn’t do the FAFSA with D1, so we just sent it to all), two of them reached back out and also asked for the CSS (one was a private and the other was an in-state public).
Since we don’t qualify for any aid, I didn’t see the need to fill out the much more intrusive CSS. My daughter reached out to the two colleges that asked for it and they confirmed that unless we thought we’d qualify for aid, the CSS (and really the FAFSA, except for the VT requirement) was not necessary.
IIRC the “deadline” for filing a FAFSA is the end of the academic year for which your child is enrolled. So…if 2024-2025, you have until the end of the academic year in 2025 to file a FAFSA (and get that Direct Loan). The caveat is that this needs to be completed before your student’s academic year ends.
You actually cannot amend the FAFSA no matter what when your circumstances change. If they do change, you can request that the school perform a professional judgment review to determine whether your change in circumstances might result in increased aid. If the school has a financial aid priority deadline, they can require that a student has to file the FAFSA by their priority deadline in order to qualify for institutional grants if the student’s circumstances change later. However, it’s important to note that the ability to receive federal aid is not dependent on the school’s financial aid priority deadline. Instead, it is dependent on the later federal filing deadline and on the student being enrolled in classes at the time the FAFSA is filed (Pell) and whether the student is enrolled at least half time (when they apply for loans) - which could be as late as the spring term.
I just want people to be aware that if something happens financially, students still have the ability to get loans (and perhaps Pell, if they qualify due to the changed circumstances) even if they didn’t file a FAFSA before.
@kelsmom and am I correct that the “deadline” for filing a FAFSA is the end of the academic year?
It is. Practically speaking, it may be earlier in order to get everything in order in a timely manner to sync up with requirements such as still being enrolled part time for loans. If the student happens to be selected for verification when they file the FAFSA, it could slow the process a bit.