Why fill out the FAFSA?
May 9, 2008 by schev
We recently received a comment from a student wondering why it was important to fill out the FAFSA and were pleased to find a five minute video on the FinAid website to help us explain. Created by FastWeb, the video is a great introduction to FAFSA and explains its importance in a quick and entertaining way.
Yes, why bother to fill FAFSA out!? Our children don’t qualify because of my salary, but I have 10 children still at home. It seems like that should be taken into account in the calculations.
Scott -
Some families question whether there is a benefit to completing the FAFSA. Because of their high income, they reason that they will not qualify for need-based aid and so completing the form amounts to a waste of time.
In truth, family income is but one of the components for determining aid eligibility. Other factors include family size, cost of living, number of family members in college, and age of oldest parent (for retirement protections). Because of these factors and depending upon the cost of education at a particular college, there are cases where families with income over six figures or more have still been able to demonstrate financial need.
Even if the family does not qualify for the Pell grant - reserved for primarily for very low income students - other forms of need based aid from the state, the institution, or private resources may be available and most of these sources use the financial information provided on the FAFSA.
Finally, to qualify for federal student loans - both need based and non-need based - the student must first complete the FAFSA.
If borrowing becomes necessary, these loans should be the first considered as they provide many forms of student benefits unmatched by private student loans. In short, the FAFSA is an important part of the college preparation process that should be considered by all students.
-Lee Andes, State Council of Higher Education
Some one told me that some colleges require a parent to file the FAFSA for the student to obtain a merit-based scholarship. That does not make sense to me, but do you know anything about that? Perhaps it is for state colleges to keep statistics on the income of the students (familiies) receiving the scholarships? I have filled out the FAFSA for 2 of my children knowing we would not receive, and do not want, need-based awards, but out of concern they would not be eligible for merit-based if I didn’t file the FAFSA. I do not want to spend the time if that is a false rumor however. Thanks for any information you have on that.
Stephen -
While the FAFSA is designed by the federal government primarily for the purpose of identifying students eligible for federal financial aid, the EFC and the individual family data components have gained widespread use for a number of other financial aid related reasons, even if the student might not qualify for need-based assistance.
This may be, as you suggest, for the purpose of collecting statistical analysis of families qualifying for merit-based awards but most often it’s simply a standard office policy so that students can be considered for all forms of assistance. Also, some forms of merit-based awards carry a disclaimer that the award when combined with other forms of aid cannot create an over-award (when combined grants/scholarships is greater than the cost of education).
So, if the student qualifies for need-based aid, then the merit-based award could be reduced accordingly. This allows the student to be fully awarded while allowing the institution to recoup some of its merit aid to use for other deserving students. The college financial aid office will be able to tell you if the FAFSA is required for consideration of the institution’s merit-based programs.
- Lee Andes, State Council of Higher Education