FAFSA - everyone should fill out?

[Anonymous]

Our oldest is a h.s. junior, so college is starting to be on our minds. Everyone I know and everything I have read has said that no matter what your income, you should fill out the FAFSA when the time comes. My DH is convinced that since our household income $180k, and we have over $100k in savings, our child won't qualify for any aid and thus we should not fill out the FAFSA when our child is ready to go to college. Any advice from those who know?

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of non-need-based scholarships (I got several). And I think a lot of schools require the FAFSA to award any type of aid at all. So submit it -- what have you got to lose?

[Anonymous]

We did not fill out the FAFSA as our income is reasonably high ($750k+) so we knew we would not qualify for need based aid (nor do we need it). My DC did get a merit scholarship from one college for about $15,000/year. I know other similarly situated kids who have also received merit scholarships without applying for aid or completing the FAFSA.

I think at your income level it makes sense to fill it out - you never know.

[Anonymous]

If you think that you may want to do loans or anything like that, you will need to complete the fafsa. Like a pp said, some schools won't award any aid unless the fafsa is completed.

[Anonymous]

We didn't think we would qualify. We make about $210 combined with 1 child. Well, she wouldn't have qualified for the federal aid -- but the top 3 Ivies have their own formulas beyond the federal one. We get about $5,000 which is really nice considering we weren't expecting any at all.

Go to Princeton University Financial aid calculator page online and put in your numbers. This service gives a good gauge even for folks not going to Princeton. Many athletic coaches doing recruiting have families go to this page to do a calculation -- Ivy or not.

[Anonymous]

Fill it out.

Our HHI is similar (slightly higher) to yours. Our DD goes to a SLAC in PA. She ended up getting non-need based grants that covered 1/3 of the tuition. We got lucky based on the school and its composition (more males than females), but we would not have even been in the game had we failed to complete the FAFSA because the SLAC used that to set the grant levels.

Does not hurt and you NEVER know what package a college can put together.

[Anonymous]

We had friends who didn't fill it out at first because they were going to pay for their son's education without loans but then something went south at their business and they needed to get student loans.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all the responses. I am going to share them with DH and have us go to the financial aid discussion at DC's school. What you have all said is exactly what I have heard regarding applying for loans and merit aid, as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did not fill out the FAFSA as our income is reasonably high ($750k+) so we knew we would not qualify for need based aid (nor do we need it). My DC did get a merit scholarship from one college for about $15,000/year. I know other similarly situated kids who have also received merit scholarships without applying for aid or completing the FAFSA.

I think at your income level it makes sense to fill it out - you never know.

"reasonably high"
Thanks for the laugh.

[Anonymous]

We are concerned with the government knowing too much about our personal business. Should this be a concern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are concerned with the government knowing too much about our personal business. Should this be a concern?

Who is the government? The few people that process your form? Do you file tax returns? Ever applied for a mortgage? The information you provide is the same as you provide on a credit app. Sure, you have to divulge financial information on the FAFSA. There are privacy laws that mandate how your information must be handled.

Yes, I would make sure I knew what info I was providing and how it was handled. However, I would not use that concern as a basis not to complete the form. Just my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Something else to be aware of with regard to the FAFSA...you will need to select on the form I think up to 10 colleges to send your data to. The colleges see that list. They know if they are in the #1 slot, or the #10 slot. You know it is terrifically important to them that students admitted, that a high percentage then choose to go to their college. A college who knows from the FAFSA they may be your kid's #10 choice may not put together as competitive a package or may reject if they don't think they have a shot at your student choosing them. So order your choices carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are concerned with the government knowing too much about our personal business. Should this be a concern?

Paranoia will destroy ya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something else to be aware of with regard to the FAFSA...you will need to select on the form I think up to 10 colleges to send your data to. The colleges see that list. They know if they are in the #1 slot, or the #10 slot. You know it is terrifically important to them that students admitted, that a high percentage then choose to go to their college. A college who knows from the FAFSA they may be your kid's #10 choice may not put together as competitive a package or may reject if they don't think they have a shot at your student choosing them. So order your choices carefully.

p

This is true only at certain colleges. We asked admissions reps about and got different answers. It is a complete misuse of the information, however, and DoE is considering revising its policy of sharing the lists.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/28/colleges-use-fafsa-information-reject-students-and-potentially-lower-financial-aid#sthash.zn4tm7NW.dpbs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something else to be aware of with regard to the FAFSA...you will need to select on the form I think up to 10 colleges to send your data to. The colleges see that list. They know if they are in the #1 slot, or the #10 slot. You know it is terrifically important to them that students admitted, that a high percentage then choose to go to their college. A college who knows from the FAFSA they may be your kid's #10 choice may not put together as competitive a package or may reject if they don't think they have a shot at your student choosing them. So order your choices carefully.

This is true