FAFSA - is middle-class waste time applying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I are both gs14 fed employee with combined income around $300k pretax. This is quite common for middle class in dc area. We’re told not to bother filling up FAFSA or any financial aid since we won’t be qualified for anything so we won’t apply. Is it true for anyone in our situation?

Now, if kid gets into a private college with annual expenses 70k+, how middle class manages to pay for it without any aids or scholarships?

Who told you that?

You won’t get any need-based aid, but some schools use it to look at what merit aid they will grant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my income was $300k I would have zero problems being able to pay for my kid to go to an expensive, private college. You need a dose of reality

No necessarily true! 300k sounds a lot. But after tax, medical and retirement deduction, it is lucky if could take home half of it. With other kids to support, who can afford to use 50% of take home money paying for one kid’s college expenses?

Still not middle class - you live in the DC bubble, so you think anything under $1m per year is "middle class". GMAFB.

OP, many private sector people make less than you, stop trying to play martyr.

DP. Not sure if you live in the DC area but $300K income is not wealthy here. Yes, we live comfortably but with 2 kids, we're not going on European vacations every year and we certainly can't afford paying for Princeton tuition. Hoping my kids get into UMD.

[Anonymous]

Op, I live in the DC area, make less than half as much as you and have four kids. Please stop trying to cry poor.

[Anonymous]

Op, I live in the DC area, make less than half as much as you and have four kids. Please stop trying to cry poor.

[Anonymous]

We’re in CA at a public. Currently my DC is getting about $1500 per trimester as a mid-period rebate. It’s from a grant with no income threshold. I believe state, but could be federal funds. Regardless it requires the FAFSA on file. Part of any bureaucracy is verification and reporting. FAFSA is the mechanism for that and easy to complete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:merit based scholarships do require FAFSA however they are hard to come by, you almost have to go down two notches school ranking wise to score some.

But this isn’t true in most cases.

Merit is merit. It’s to entice kids to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We also did not complete the FAFSA and my son received merit awards from a few schools. He’s currently a first year student with a very generous merit award- no FAFSA necessary.

Did you do the CSS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:merit based scholarships do require FAFSA however they are hard to come by, you almost have to go down two notches school ranking wise to score some.

But this isn’t true in most cases.

Merit is merit. It’s to entice kids to come.

And not applying for FA can be an advantage in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a few minutes of your time, OP, and you should fill out the CSS too.

I filled both out, and DS got a merit scholarship to go to his school of choice. Not a bad deal.

What is your HHI?

[Anonymous]

I keep getting told full pay is an admissions advantage. Most need blind are really need aware.

Wouldn’t filing for it be a negative if every calculator says you are going to get “0” anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:merit based scholarships do require FAFSA however they are hard to come by, you almost have to go down two notches school ranking wise to score some.

This is totally wrong. Almost NO schools require FAFSA for merit awards. We did not fill out FAFSA and my kid got merit aid offers from a dozen different schools.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also did not complete the FAFSA and my son received merit awards from a few schools. He’s currently a first year student with a very generous merit award- no FAFSA necessary.

Did you do the CSS?

No we didn’t do the CSS either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep getting told full pay is an admissions advantage. Most need blind are really need aware.

Wouldn’t filing for it be a negative if every calculator says you are going to get “0” anyway?

My DS was definitely in the lower 50% for GPA for the school he got accepted to ED.
We checked the box - we are not applying for aid.
The school reached out to confirm that we are not applying for aid.
It is definitely a part of the consideration

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I are both gs14 fed employee with combined income around $300k pretax. This is quite common for middle class in dc area. We’re told not to bother filling up FAFSA or any financial aid since we won’t be qualified for anything so we won’t apply. Is it true for anyone in our situation?

Now, if kid gets into a private college with annual expenses 70k+, how middle class manages to pay for it without any aids or scholarships?

Who told you that?

You won’t get any need-based aid, but some schools use it to look at what merit aid they will grant.

As numerous posts have indicated, that is true only for very few schools. Typically the merit will be awarded pending receipt of FAFSA. In other words, they'll tell you if you need to submit FAFSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:merit based scholarships do require FAFSA however they are hard to come by, you almost have to go down two notches school ranking wise to score some.

This is totally wrong. Almost NO schools require FAFSA for merit awards. We did not fill out FAFSA and my kid got merit aid offers from a dozen different schools.

Agree, our experience as well.