Absolutely fill it out.

An hour or so the first time, and 15 minutes in subsequent years. Just do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, there is no harm in completing the application, correct? No negative impact on anything?

No. Not at all.

I really don’t understand why people are so weird about it. It takes like 20 minutes to do.

It takes me about 2 hrs. But still, there is no other area of my life where 2 hrs has such a high return.

Why on earth does it take you so long? You can import tax return data. I've filled out two for myself this year alone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify, there is no harm in completing the application, correct? No negative impact on anything?

No. Not at all.

I really don’t understand why people are so weird about it. It takes like 20 minutes to do.

It takes me about 2 hrs. But still, there is no other area of my life where 2 hrs has such a high return.

Anonymous wrote:I did not fill it out and my son got merit aid at every school.

Well, mine got merit aid from a bunch of schools, at least two of which required the FAFSA for merit aid, and one also required that private school form.

We are required to fill it out every year to keep the award.

So, anecdote isnt data. And if your kid got merit aid everywhere, perhaps your son should have aimed higher?


OP, the answer is school specific.

GMU will not talk to you about merit aid until they have the FAFSA