Explain FAFSA to me please!

[Usually Curious]

Okay, my ds is a senior. He could very well receive athletic scholarship offers but we are going to fill out a FAFSA anyway. He wants to coach/teach math. He is eligible for the TEACH grant and the SMART grant. I would think he'd also qualify for some PELL grant money.

After we fill out the FAFSA forms will they send an award letter? Will we have some idea about how much grant money he might receive. Does he have to choose a college by then?

Also, can he receive an athletic scholarship as well as the TEACH and SMART grants, considering they are not needs based? He will definitely need the money to help pay living expenses because he will not be able to work as a scholarship athlete (at least not during basketball season).

I'm also going to fill out a FAFSA. I think it will be interesting to see what/if anything I qualify for.

[zebra15]

My understanding of the TEACH grant is you 'take' it now with the understanding you are going to 'teach' in one of the 'needy' areas. I looked at that particular grant when I went for my teaching cert. and passed on it due to the requirements after graduation.

Definately fill out the FAFSA and see what they say. Things will be dependent on the parents income and assets since he is still your dependent at this stage (my understanding). If he does not recieve the grants and scholarships he needs your son may need to take out loans, find a job, take less classes, go to a community college the first year or any combo of those to make the tuition work for HIM.

Have you been attending 'college' night at the local high school? Usually the high schools have them during the year and encourage partcipation during the sophmore and junior years. The guidance department may have some answers as well as the college finance department.

[Usually Curious]

We homeschooled until this year. He is academically and athletically prepared for a Div I basketball scholarship but you never know.

The district that he wants to teach in qualifies as a needy district so he is on board w/the requirments.

Will I receive a detailed award letter after I fill out the FAFSA? I just did a quick calculator and I had to fill in three college's expected expenses.

Also, if I am a homemaker I do not provide 1/2 the financial support of my dependents but they could not 'run' the household w/out my 'free' household contributions, yk?

[Maluhia]

sadly the FAFSA won't take your 'free' contributions into consideration, the whole devaluing 'women's work' thing our society deals with.

[zebra15]

NO the FAFSA will not take into consideration that you are a SAHM, they just look at household size,household income and household assets. (as well as if the college student has any assets in his name)

Another thing for your DS to keep in the back of his mind just because he *wants* to teach in a certain district or area does not mean in 4-5 years from now that particular area will be hiring. Demographics change, needs change etc. Also just because he thinks he wants to teach and coach that all could change after he tries it out ya know?

Education majors have ALOT of requirements and classroom observation hours. I dont know how that works in with athletics.

Back to the FASFA, if I remeber correctly my financial aid was handled with the financial aid office of the university I was attending (I was back in school for 2007-2009) and I didn't get anything official until it was time to register. In your shoes I would get in touch with the financial aid department of the schools your DS is interested in and see what type of package they are offering.

It also may be more cost effective to find off campus housing with roommates vs a dorm room. You and DS will need to look at the numbers if he was thinking about going 'away' for school.

[kbond]

Financial aid offers will come through the University where your DS is accepted.

So, what happens, is you fill out the FAFSA. One of the sections asks you what schools you would like the report sent to. (You'll have to look-up the school codes at that point.) The government will then send a copy of the report to the schools indicated.

The schools will then generate a financial aid package for you, and they will send you the letter. Generally, they will do this after you've been accepted I think. It will be a part of your acceptance package so that you can compare offers.

It is also a good idea to fill the FAFSA out as soon as possible as most schools have a priority aid deadline sometime in February. But, you can always go back and ask for a report to be sent to a school so you are not locked into your choices on that front.

[maryeliz]

It is important to know that the FAFSA isn't binding for schools. Some schools choose to meet all need as defined by the FAFSA, but many do not. I think it is a good idea to apply to multiple schools because you might get a particularly good offer from one-and occasionally you can use that offer to bargain with another school. If your first choice school send you an award letter that does not offer enough aid, always consider sending a letter of appeal outlining your circumstances and asking for additional money-you can use FAFSA data in your appeal if the FAFSA says you need more money than the school is offering.

[Usually Curious]

Thanks for all the information. I guess we'll know more about which schools to pursue after basketball season. Also, you can't fill out the FAFSA until January 1.

Thanks!

[kbond]

Right, you can't fill it out until Jan. 1, but it also asks you for tax information. You don't need to have done your taxes yet, but it does help. My advice was just to do it as soon as possible after Jan. 1 because of the priority aid deadline.

[Usually Curious]

We need to file asap anyway.

Thanks everyone. Because of this thread I checked out college app deadlines. I had no idea you had to apply so early! My dd skipped college and so ds is our first to go through this.

I find the differences in our 'seasons of life' so interesting and helpful. I love MDC!

[cschick]

Originally Posted by maryeliz

It is important to know that the FAFSA isn't binding for schools. Some schools choose to meet all need as defined by the FAFSA, but many do not. I think it is a good idea to apply to multiple schools because you might get a particularly good offer from one-and occasionally you can use that offer to bargain with another school. If your first choice school send you an award letter that does not offer enough aid, always consider sending a letter of appeal outlining your circumstances and asking for additional money-you can use FAFSA data in your appeal if the FAFSA says you need more money than the school is offering.

Right. In my case for undergrad, my state school (University of IL, C/U) refused me almost any financial aid. All I was offered was unsubsidized Stafford loans. With the unsub loans, you either need to pay the interest while you are in school, or add it to principal. With subsidized loans, the interest does not start to accrue until 6 months after you have left full-time student status.

But the private universities I applied to, all offered me great packages of grants and subsidized loans. Northwestern, the school I chose to attend, tries to keep all students at the loan average for their graduating year. I graduated from there with 12K in loans, which was the average debt nation-wide on graduation for my graduating year.

I probably would have been 20K-30K in debt had I gone to U of I.

[Usually Curious]

So, the state schools are way less than the private schools that I might want him to apply for but we should go ahead an apply and see what they offer for FA packages?

Drury and Evangel are pretty pricey. So is Cedarville. MSU is much more affordable but would still not be covered completely by SMART, TEACH and PELL grants unless he received the full PELL grant amount and I'm not sure he will.

According to the calculators he may get more aid if I am in school, too.

I'm glad we've got until Jan. 1 to figure all of this out!

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by Usually Curious

So, the state schools are way less than the private schools that I might want him to apply for but we should go ahead an apply and see what they offer for FA packages?

Drury and Evangel are pretty pricey. So is Cedarville. MSU is much more affordable but would still not be covered completely by SMART, TEACH and PELL grants unless he received the full PELL grant amount and I'm not sure he will.

According to the calculators he may get more aid if I am in school, too.

I'm glad we've got until Jan. 1 to figure all of this out!

I would not count on FA covering the entire cost of tuition. FA could, but again it could not. That is why financial planners, college planners, the collge night talks etc recommend the students be prepared to either/or/and take on debt, a job, less classes, community college, and explore other options.

Does your DS have a college fund to help pay for his tuition? That will come into play for his FA award as well. Any assets in your sons name, he will be expected to use (in the eyes of FAFSA).

Scholarships are great but you need to have a contingency plan, just in case.

[Ianthe]

I don't know if it's been said before.. but your DS can send his FAFSA results to a few colleges of his choice.. so if he turns in applications to a few, then he can send the info to all of them.

I always do my taxes ASAP and file FAFSA as soon as they are done.

Do lots of research to find out what schools offer for their Fin. Aid and scholarships. I looked at every university that I could think of attending and ended up at Utah State because they have awesome scholarships based on my GPA (hint, hint, you might want to look at that, lol)

You are SUCH a GREAT MOM! Kudos to you for helping your son with this!

[cschick]

Originally Posted by Usually Curious

So, the state schools are way less than the private schools that I might want him to apply for but we should go ahead an apply and see what they offer for FA packages?

Drury and Evangel are pretty pricey. So is Cedarville. MSU is much more affordable but would still not be covered completely by SMART, TEACH and PELL grants unless he received the full PELL grant amount and I'm not sure he will.

According to the calculators he may get more aid if I am in school, too.

I'm glad we've got until Jan. 1 to figure all of this out!

Many private schools have the ability to offer more financial aid than public schools, due to their endowments and foundations. Many private schools, especially in the top tier, have need-based policies that are explicitly set up to cover more than any of the public universities do, in order not to be out of reach for smart but lower income students.

For example, Princeton (and I believe Harvard) currently have policies that students whose family yearly incomes are under a certain amount (and I think Princeton's amount is 100K) should not be forced to carry debt to cover their college education.

Northwestern has the policy that no student should graduate with more than the average nation-wide amount of debt for their graduating year. Note that is the overall average, which includes the debt load of students attending both private and public universities.

I'm the oldest of 5 kids, my youngest sister just graduated from college. We all applied to both our state public and private universities, and we all went private simply because the private universities offered far, far better financial aid than the public. All of us would have been in the same or more debt on graduation if we had gone to our state's public universities.

Three of us when to tier one schools, two to tier two schools.

[cschick]

Continued ...

Yes, have your child apply to all the schools he's interested in and see what sort of financial aid package he receives. While many schools claim to be need-based admissions, there's still some wiggle room in that, and if a school really wants him you can be surprised by what they offer.

My experience was in 1995, but my understanding is that it mirrors pretty exactly my youngest sister's experience in 2005, I'll just use mine.

I applied to: University of IL, Northwestern, Drake University, University of Notre Dame, Harvard.

Harvard rejected me early decision, invited me to reapply standard. I did not.

The other four all accepted me. For financial aid . . .

Northwestern and Drake's packages came within 500 dollars of one another for freshman year. Both of them covered at least half my tuition with university grants. (I was not eligible for Pell grants.)

Next was Notre Dame, which basically offered me subsidized loans and other parent-student loan types.

Last was University of IL, which basically offered me nothing financial-aid wise (access to some unsubsidized loans but not even enough to cover tuition). Since this was actually the first package I received, it was kind of shocking and depressing. My dad's response was basically "if this is what you're going to get, you're not going to be able to go to college next year."

I chose Northwestern. Going forward through my years there, the university grants I was given increased, and the loan amounts I had to take out per year decreased. My senior year, almost all my schooling-related fees and tuition (so, excluding room and board) were covered by grants. And I significantly cut down the room and board cost by moving to a cheap apartment off campus.