Don’t “Apply just to Apply”
If you are 100% positive that there is absolutely no way that your family will qualify for financial aid, submitting the FAFSA will result in the following:
Sharing personally identifiable information unnecessarily
Providing information that could potentially bias the admissions committee against providing merit aid to the admitted student because of a higher-than-average household income and a perception that the additional money “isn’t needed”
Providing information that could potentially make it more difficult to gain admission in the first place.
That last one is an especially important consideration: while a lack of financial need doesn’t really give anyone an advantage anymore (there are plenty of full-pay students, especially in the DC area), having financial need can still represent a disadvantage… whether the school claims to be need-blind or not.
Remember: many admissions officers do not have access to the numbers on financial aid forms when making the admissions decision, so other than context clues, they don’t know whether the student is applying for financial aid with a $50k HHI or a $500k HHI. They just know that the student applied for financial aid.. and BOOM! There goes any benefit associated with being a full-pay student!
Still: If you need to apply, you need to apply.
If there is ANY question that you might be eligible for need-based financial aid, please disregard the above information and go ahead and apply. You need to fill out the FAFSA; in all likelihood, the CSS Profile, as well; and any other forms required for the financial aid process. Many schools also have institutional forms, so please make sure to check individual financial aid websites. Don’t waste one minute thinking about whether to apply or not or worrying about a disadvantage. Control what you can control!
How to know?
Go ahead and visit FAFSA4caster to get a better estimate of your eligibility for financial aid before filling out a FAFSA. If your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is less than the expected cost of attendance at the highest-priced college(s) your student(s) may attend - you may qualify. Don’t forget to add the cost of attendance numbers together with multiple students in college - this is calculated per family, not per student.
For example, let’s say your EFC is $100,000 and your son is a high school senior during the 2019-2020 academic year. You visited the schools’ websites and found that the cost of attendance at the pricest school on his list is Boston College, with an estimated cost of attendance of $76,161 (ouch) for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Your first step should be to re-calculate the possible estimated cost of attendance for the 2020-2021 academic year. Boston College has had price increases of just under 4% (3.9%, 3.97%, etc) in recent years - let’s give them some wiggle room and re-calculate assuming a 5% cost increase to be safe. Your new estimate is $79,969. In this case, STOP! Don’t apply for financial aid. (Note: BC claims to be need-blind, and they very well may be, but why risk it? Many schools claim things that aren’t the case, or change policies mid-way through the admissions cycle.)
However, let’s take that same scenario (EFC is $100,000 and the expected cost of attendance at your senior son’s highest-priced school is $79,969) and pretend that you already have an older child in college already. She will be entering her second year at UVA’s School of Engineering (that in-state tuition never looked so good, huh!) and the estimated cost of attendance is $38,210. Allow for a 4% increase based on UVA’s past data, which would come to be $39,738. Add the two numbers together: you’re now at $119,707. YES- you should apply for financial aid!
One issue I didn’t cover here, for simplicity’s sake - the way that schools present costs are slightly different from school to school and are not particularly straightforward. Some include allowances for items like living expenses, for example. Since it’s not a perfect calculation, if your EFC is anywhere near the expected cost of attendance, I would go ahead and apply just in case. On the other hand, if your EFC is $100,000 and your student is attending a school with a $70,000 cost of attendance, you should not apply. This will do you no favors.
YAY! WE WILL LIKELY QUALIFY! HOW DO I FILL THIS THING OUT?
If you do decide to fill out a FAFSA and apply for aid, the good news is that there is a local organization that provides 1:1 assistance for free. College Access Fairfax will provide 1:1 assistance at their FAFSA completion workshops, as long as you show up with the documents they require in hand (don’t worry, there aren’t too many documents to gather). Students do not have to be enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools and do not even have to live in Fairfax County. This is such a great service! There is still one workshop left on April 1 for Class of 2020 seniors who are filling it out on the later side, and you can register for that here.
They also provide programming for younger students that is absolutely worth attending if you believe you will apply for financial aid or would just like to learn more about the process. Events in March include Paying for College/Scholarship 101 (I would recommend this for families with students in 9th-11th grade) and several Middle School Financial Awareness seminars.
A FEW LAST TIPS
Believe me, I understand that it’s stressful to think about paying for college. Whether you qualify for financial aid or not, this is a source of stress for MANY families across income levels. Here are a few more tips concerning finances:
Set a budget from the beginning and stick to it. Do not allow emotion to be a factor in your decision-making process; desperate people make bad choices. NO school is worth your retirement savings or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Try not to feel badly if you can’t afford to send your student where she wants to go (or can, but have chosen not to spend your money that way). I have seen so many parents beat themselves up about this over the years, which is crazy. Accepting that you can’t give your child everything is the worst part of parenting and 100% unavoidable. You can put it off, sure, but not forever.
Bernie Sanders is NOT the answer. Sorry, had to stick that in there :) Don’t forget to vote on Super Tuesday tomorrow!
Good luck!