Clicking yes or no on financial aid

[Anonymous]

Clicking yes or no on financial aid. My DC is about to start hitting send on rolling admission and other early action schools. So far we had clicked no financial aid, understanding that full pay is attractive. And I think we would get very little aid anyway. However, now I’m hearing that it might impact merit aid. I know there’s been several threads on this, but which is the better strategy here?

[Anonymous]

Most schools have a different question--are you applying for need-based aid and are you applying for merit aid--so you can say no to one and yes to the other

[Anonymous]

Do you need to fill out the FAFSA for merit aid?

[Anonymous]

Clicking no on financial aid does not impact merit aid (unless that particular merit aid has a need component - check the merit scholarship options for that college)

[Anonymous]

Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

I've scoured this forum on this topic and the only specific schools I've seen named that may require FAFSA filing for certain merit scholarships are Fordham and Villanova.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

I've scoured this forum on this topic and the only specific schools I've seen named that may require FAFSA filing for certain merit scholarships are Fordham and Villanova.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

I've scoured this forum on this topic and the only specific schools I've seen named that may require FAFSA filing for certain merit scholarships are Fordham and Villanova.

And, with Villanova, a relative filed the FAFSA and was awarded a scholarship described as merit aid but when we all received an inheritance the scholarship was pulled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

I've scoured this forum on this topic and the only specific schools I've seen named that may require FAFSA filing for certain merit scholarships are Fordham and Villanova.

And, with Villanova, a relative filed the FAFSA and was awarded a scholarship described as merit aid but when we all received an inheritance the scholarship was pulled.

Why wouldn't it be?

[Anonymous]

Drexel requires a FAFSA for merit aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check with each school applied to for confirmation that FAFSA and CSS are not required for merit aid.

I've scoured this forum on this topic and the only specific schools I've seen named that may require FAFSA filing for certain merit scholarships are Fordham and Villanova.

And, with Villanova, a relative filed the FAFSA and was awarded a scholarship described as merit aid but when we all received an inheritance the scholarship was pulled.

Why wouldn't it be?

Not PP, but it sounds like in that case, the "merit" scholarship actually had criteria that included need. That was a more common offering decades ago, to have combined criteria of both merit and need. In contrast, in recent years, many colleges have a more distinct separation between merit scholarships (not requiring any need whatsoever) and need-based financial aid. This distinction is important for families who do not qualify for need-based aid, and accordingly, are hunting for scholarships awarded only on merit.