FAFSA Question

[logged out]

Hello All,

I have been lurking on this site for a few years and have learned alot and enjoyed the different opinions.

Our oldest daughter will be starting college in the fall of 2012 at a State School. We are torn if we should even fill out the FAFSA form and share all of our personal finincial info. We have approx. 2 mil. net worth, not counting retirement accounts and primary home.

We are fairly sure no aid is available, we plan on funding her school expeneses. We do not know if we may harm her chances of getting any campus job oppurtunities.

We are very interested in knowing the experiences/advice of the forum members.

 

[REWahoo]

logged out, I have no experience with FAFSA but I have seen several threads discussing the process on the forum. I recommend you stick FAFSA in the "powered by Google" search box near the top of the page and search to see what you find. Here's one example: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/fafsa-efc-25557.html

 

[MichaelB]

Hi Logged Out, nice to see your first post. If you are not planning on requesting financial aid there is no purpose in filing FAFSA. There are online calculators that can give you an idea of how your assets can affect aid eligibility. Both income and assets are assessed, so your level of assets don't automatically preclude aid. You might find you'd daughter is eligible for some loans at attractive rates, and this might be of interest.

 

[Nords]

We do not know if we may harm her chances of getting any campus job oppurtunities.

No. At a typical college some jobs are set aside for work-study financial aid (like the cafeteria or the library) while others are based on the student's skills & abilities (like RA or research asst or tutor). You should ask the State U. financial aid office if that's an issue.

FWIW the financial aid people have seen it all, you're nothing special, and they don't care.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Our DD got a letter from the college she had decided to attend telling her she didn't qualify for financial aid and we hadn't even applied for it or filed the FAFSA! We still scratch our heads over that, 12 years later. But she took a campus job as a freshman and kept it through her four years. It paid tuition credit, rather than money, at a progressive rate, and by the time she was a senior 85 percent was covered. The job was open to anyone, posted on the wall at the pool.

 

[youbet]

To add to Nords comments, My son went thru a public university engineering program as a co-op. Our financial information was never required to secure entry into the co-op program. As Nords said, it was strictly his skills and abilities.

We did not submit a FAFSA.

 

[target2019]

It is almost certain that you will get no financial aid for your daughter. With your assets, it sounds like you could possibly allocate things to the wrong category on the form, and create future problems. So I agree with your statements.

 

[Nords]

Our DD got a letter from the college she had decided to attend telling her she didn't qualify for financial aid and we hadn't even applied for it or filed the FAFSA!

Well, it might not have had anything to do with your daughter... someone might have recognized your name on her application and decided to save you the trouble of filling out the FAFSA!

I went through the filing efforts (both the FAFSA and the PROFILE) and got shot down practically by return mail. Then the NROTC unit had our daughter start filling out scholarships "because we say so". She's already won $1250 in two separate scholarships, probably because she took the trouble to fill out the forms and write a cogent essay.

I was always worried about our daughter showing up at USNA and having some administration official cast a beady eye on her, look down their long rodent nose, and say: "Hmmm... Nords, eh? Are you related to the one who... oh, great. Here we go again."

 

[logged out]

Thank you very much for all of the replys. I did complete the FAFSA on-line calculator, our EFC was >$75,000. It was very apparent to not go thru the motions and fill out the application.

We are very glad that this does not preclude her from any campus job oppurtunities related to her major. Thanks again for the help, this is great site with a lot knowledge and help.

 

[OptimistPrime]

Just a note that if you want her to be eligible for some academic-based (i.e. not need-based) scholarships, the school may still require that a FAFSA be on file. I got several thousand dollars worth of free scholarship money by applying for non-need-based scholarships, and every one of them had a requirement that my FAFSA be on file with the financial aid office. Of course, if you just want to pay for everything and not bother trying for scholarships, there's certainly no point filling out the FAFSA with your projected EFC.

 

[panacea]

Just a note that if you want her to be eligible for some academic-based (i.e. not need-based) scholarships, the school may still require that a FAFSA be on file. I got several thousand dollars worth of free scholarship money by applying for non-need-based scholarships, and every one of them had a requirement that my FAFSA be on file with the financial aid office. Of course, if you just want to pay for everything and not bother trying for scholarships, there's certainly no point filling out the FAFSA with your projected EFC.

+1
I'm just getting geared up for this with our oldest in 9th grade. One of the last books I read (either "The College Solution" or "Paying for College Without Going Broke") suggested completing the FAFSA no matter what for that very reason. That said, it also sounded like aid packages from state schools are much more heavily weighted toward loans while private school's offer more grants and scholarships. Therefore, if you don't qualify for need-based loans, not sure if it's worth it. A guy I work with (high income/high net worth) has both his kids in college and said his kids are in private schools and they received nice award letters (no loans) without the FAFSA. I suppose it depends on the schools applied to. So who knows.

 

[tightasadrum]

DD graduated a few years ago. I agree that you cannot expect any financial aid since it's based on income AND net worth. $2M is way out of the top of the chart.

As to a job, have her find something in town. DD worked as a waitress for three years. She learned some very good job skills, and it re-enforced her opinion of not wanting to wait on tables again. The downside of working in town is that they don't really care if she is a student with an exam the next day. They have a business to run. The other employees helped each other out though. She also missed time at home because she had to go back to work, five hours away. Still, I think is was good experience for her.

 

[Alan]

Just a note that if you want her to be eligible for some academic-based (i.e. not need-based) scholarships, the school may still require that a FAFSA be on file. I got several thousand dollars worth of free scholarship money by applying for non-need-based scholarships, and every one of them had a requirement that my FAFSA be on file with the financial aid office. Of course, if you just want to pay for everything and not bother trying for scholarships, there's certainly no point filling out the FAFSA with your projected EFC.

Same situation here. We knew our income was way too high to get any needs based scholarships but we filed anyway as we were told that a FASA had to be filed for academic scholarships. DD went out of State so we had that expense as well. (this was back in 1999)

After the first semester DD got a job in the university computer lab so that meant in-State fees going forward which saved ~$3,500 / semester. Final semester she got an academic scholarship that paid all fees.

 

[TromboneAl]

The best occurs when you have most of your dough in retirement accounts. That doesn't count against you.

 

[ronocnikral]

having worked at my college's financial aid office, I would always encourage people to file the FAFSA on time, every year. There is no downside to it (other than some time). The reason of the school needing it to disperse any student aid is a good reason. My major had scholarships specific to it that even the whitest and richest of kids got each year.

The other reason is in case you ever fall against some financial hardship. If you have not filed the FAFSA, they will show you the door and won't even hear your sob story. My father lost his job in the middle of my first semester, and because we filed a FAFSA, we were able to alert them of our financial hardship and my student aid package was drastically (from nothing to about 1/3 of total cost covered) changed.

Again, I highly recommend you file it.

 

[logged out]

Thank you, after much deliberation, we will be filling out the FAFSA form.

 

[pb4uski]

Based on our income and wealth (which was less than yours) when DD went to college, it was apparent that we wouldn't be getting any aid, so I didn't fill a FASFA out - I really did not want to open the kimono to my financial situation to some college administrator.

I did take some heat from DD in that it allegedly precluded her from some on campus work-study jobs, but it all worked out in the end.