Thank you, all, and yes, I too have found in my contacts with schools (SLU, UChicago, Emory, UVA, for example) that not filing FAFSA (or Profile) RISKS receiving less institutional aid in future “absent extenuating circumstances.” As much as we try to plan for contingencies, that’s not doable here:)
Thank you 
Could you please post links to the info from SLU, Chicago, Emory and UVA that state you can’t apply for need based aid in subsequent years if you don’t apply as a freshman…for U.S. residents and permanent residents.
Hi Thumper, I called all those schools financial aid offices and after some navigating spoke with “live human beings.” They all said essentially that even if you think you do not have need, you should file. I remain skeptical due to the effect on merit aid and/or admissions depending upon whether a school says they are need blind (UVA) or need aware (SLU). On CC, I did just clarify my comment that the schools said there is a risk of less/no institutional aid in the future if you did not file the FAFSA or Profile (where required) absent “extentuating circumstances.” And indeed the rules are different for international students. Sorry for the confusion.
You know…it doesn’t take a huge amount of time to do these applications. When my first kid attended BU, they required both the FAFSA and Profile be submitted before merit aid would be disbursed…not as part of the application for the merit…but before disbursal.
My kid had a music performance award that was purely merit based…no need component. But we submitted the forms.
While it may be true that the forms are not time consuming, isn’t it also true that the student has full access to them? We do not share our detailed financial situation with our children and see no reason to do so when there is no possibility of financial aid.
Is your kid going to go through the trouble to go into the FAFSA and look up what you entered in the parent section? Mine sure wouldn’t care enough to do so. Of course, they both have a pretty good idea of all the finances in our house anyhow. They might not know my retirement account balances or how much home equity I have, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say they don’t really care either beyond how it affects their aid.