What's the point in filling out FAFSA.....
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Anonymous
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if you know you don't qualify for need-based financial aid? I've heard that schools want you to fill it out anyway in order to award merit scholarships. There's something about this that doesn't ring true. Any suggestions from those with experience?
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Anonymous
| We didn't do one, because no way would we qualify for aid. |
Anonymous
| Some schools have policies that to get any aid including merit aid, the FAFSA is required. This, I believe, is to make sure that if you did happen to qualify for federal aid, that it could be used first rather than school provided aid. Presumably, most people just care about the amount of grants rather than need versus merit, so this helps to be sure that they aid is allocated appropriately. |
Anonymous
| I asked myself the same question even though we did it. It is true that some schools require it for merit aid and I've noticed that some schools aren't clear about the process for merit aid. |
Anonymous
| I'm so eager to put all my family's financial information in a centralized private service somewhere in cyberspace....not. |
Anonymous
| We didn't do it for either kid. Got a merit offer for the first, expect a couple for the second as well. The schools both DCs applied to did not say anything about doing the FAFSA. |
Anonymous
| My DH didn't see the point in filling out the FAFSA, either, but everyone I knew and the school counselor encouraged me to fill it out. There were a lot of locally based merit scholarships that DS applied for that required one to have the FAFSA on file, and DS ended up receiving one of them. It made all the hassle of filling out the form worthwhile. |
Anonymous
| This weirds me out too. The IRS knows how much money we earn annually and some other stuff. One person on earth besides DH and me knows our total net worth (our financial advisor). We don't feel comfortable spilling all the beans onto a Federal online form that's available to 3000 colleges and God knows who else. It's not a hard question for us though because DS is not an academic superstar, so I don't think we're passing up much in way of merit scholarships. |
Anonymous
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The very idea of this FAFSA and its more intrusive twin the CSS is repulsive. It's all part of the money-grabbing scheme that "higher ed" has become. The FAFSA allow colleges to charge more to people who can they think can pay more.
Blown all your life savings on cruises to Mexico? Congrats you qualify for more need-based aid. Saved your money over the years? Oh that's for us to take, thank you very much. At some point this college bubble has to burst. And it can't be too far off. How fast it breaks is the only question. |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
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Unfortunately, you do need to fill out the FAFSA if you are in that in-between area -- no you don't qualify for financial aid, but no, you can't afford to pay for college either without cutting deeply into your hard-earned retirement savings.
That's us, so we're filling it out, even though I don't feel good about putting all my financial information online either. But I don't know how DD will get money to pay for college. The colleges are NOT going to give us grants, so DD has to get merit scholarships, and pretty much all of them require the FAFSA. |
Anonymous
| Also you need to fill out FAFSA to get the DC TAG grants if you are a DD resident going to a state college/university. |
Anonymous
So tell me, how are a combination of colleges and federal agencies supposed to award aid? By an honor system? This is how much I say I make? You people are paranoid. I don't think it makes sense to award merit aid if someone is already eligible for pell grants and institutional grants. Colleges have limited endowments. There are a lot of things that involve giving your financial information to qualify for...a mortgage or lease, your taxes, certain subsidies, etc. |
Anonymous
Do you not file taxes? |
Anonymous
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