Should a high(ish) income family fill out the FAFSA?
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Anonymous
| DS started working on the Common App and asked if we would be applying for aid/filling out the FAFSA. I am 99.9% positive we do not qualify for need-based aid (I did a couple of the calcs on school websites). Should we apply anyway and fill the FAFSA out? Schools don't hold it against you if you apply for aid do they? |
Anonymous
| Yes - it’s not hard. If you want to be eligible for merit aid at some schools, and/or you want your child to consider taking out federal loans |
Anonymous
| Whats the income? YOu could for merit aid, but it depends on the school. |
Anonymous
| We didn’t bother |
Anonymous
|
FAFSA takes about 15 minutes.
CSS is a different question |
Anonymous
| We didn’t bother, got in ED at a school that definitely would not have given DC merit aid. |
Anonymous
Last year we made $420k due to bonuses...base salaries are $365k, so at least that. It would be great to get merit aid... |
Anonymous
You can comfortably afford college. You might get some merit, but that's it. No way you'd get financial aid. |
Anonymous
+1 We knew we wouldn't get anything. EFC is very high 6 figures. Fully funded 529+ some for grad school. Nothing would change to qualify us. However, I've heard it's good to file if you don't have substantial savings, because if situation changes (death of parent/loss of income/etc) you can ask for an adjustment--can't do that easily if you didn't file fafsa. |
Anonymous
| We have high income but had to do to maintain merit. Didn't have to do this until after kid was accepted and received scholarship though. |
Anonymous
Right. That's what I led with. We don't expect to receive need based aid and can afford college. But I thought I read somewhere that you should file the FAFSA anyway. With the COL in NYC and grad school potentially in my kid's future, merit aid would be nice and we would take that into consideration when making a decision. But I also heard that not all schools are "need blind" so your kid might not get in if they think you're asking for aid. I'm confused! |
Anonymous
| OP, there are a few schools - not many - that require FAFSA for some of their non-need-based merit scholarships. Plus, some people don't know that they can determine how far off they are from being eligible for aid. That is why some people recommend submitting FAFSA anyway. However, for most families who know well that they are full pay, there is no point in bothering with FAFSA. |
Anonymous
This year was a mess with the FAFSA  I mean, it wasn’t hard to fill out, but there were so dang many errors/delays on their end. I hope it’s worked out for this coming year, but I think I saw an initial report that it was going to have problems again. Insanity.
That said, we filled out just because a couple schools my daughter applied to offered a “filing discount” We are only about half your income and were offered only the standard unsubsidized loans. We are taking them because my daughter chose the private school that was more expensive than the public school that wound up as her runner up. We had the money for the state school ;p she’s going to try to earn more scholarships and/or take an on campus job like being an RA to help cover the difference. |
Anonymous
Real merit does not need a fafsa. Never did one, got true merit money from more than one school, one a named /prestigious full cost of attendance. |
Anonymous
So you can easily cash flow one kid at 90k. We make around the same and are cashflowing two, ie paying from income. If you want merit fine but unless your kid is a superstar who can get into ivy-types, it is highly unlikely you will get merit from any school within the T40. The hefty merit passed out to lots on grades or scores alone is not from top schools just fyi, they are the lesser ones trying to buy students |