Does FAFSA matter for your financial offer?

[jmason86]

I applied to the fafsa just last week (2/27). I had already received 3 rejections by that time. I still have 6 schools to hear from. Do they need to have your financial information from the FAFSA before they can make you a financial offer? Also, does that have any affect on the acceptance of your application?

[grae313]

I and probably most other applicants never filled out fafsa. It is definitely not required or even expected.

[kroner]

Some of the schools I applied to said on their websites you should fill out FAFSA but I think the deadline isn't until May, so I'm not going out of my way to do it right now. I'm not really sure how it relates to funding.

[jmason86]

Actually the deadline is tomorrow (March 2). So if you're going to fill it out.. I suggest you do it now. It only takes about 10 minutes now. Quite nice.
It seems that they can make offers to you even without the fafsa.. but can you accept them without filing a fafsa?

[YellowXDart]

The fafsa is only for federal aid. Most graduate programs are funded through other means, so I don't think it's necessary to fill it out. It only matters if you're hoping to get certain types of student loans. I think there's another thread in which someone describes this in more detail.

[YellowXDart]

Here is this thread:

http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2999

Also, based on this website: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before003a.htm, you don't have to submit your FAFSA until June 30, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. You might ask any schools you've been accepted to if they would like for you to fill it out.

[jmason86]

thanks

[nathan12343]

I was under the impression that I needed to fill out a FAFSA last year because of communications from UCSC. I think it might be for grad students that need loans because all that came out of it were offers for student loans that I ended up declining.

Long story short, no need to fill out the FAFSA if you will be fully funded.

[chewy]

you do need to fill it out. at least for some fellowhsips involving the federal govt. also, everyone has filled it out before, because you do it every year in undergrad. so you just update it. it wont make a difference if you get accepted or not but may have a difference in the offer. TA vs RA vs Fellowship. I would fill it out as soon as possible. the later you wait the less money is available. I believe its very bad to skip a year to as to not fill it out one middle year and then fill it out later. People have been saying its not required. I do not know the schools they are applying but for mine they are.

[grae313]

Huh. I applied to 8 schools in '08, UCSC included, and I was offered a standard TA and then contacted by a professor and offered an RA and spoken to about fellowships, all without filling out FAFSA. FAFSA never even came up. For the record, I also applied to Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley, UW Seattle, UCLA, UCSB, and Yale and FAFSA was never in the picture.

[nathan12343]

Huh. I applied to 8 schools in '08, UCSC included, and I was offered a standard TA and then contacted by a professor and offered an RA and spoken to about fellowships, all without filling out FAFSA. FAFSA never even came up. For the record, I also applied to Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley, UW Seattle, UCLA, UCSB, and Yale and FAFSA was never in the picture.

I was told I had to fill out a FAFSA after I accepted the offer.

[chewy]

FASFA and RA/TA are two separate things. they have nothing to do with it. FAFSA is a NEED-BASED decision. So if you have a FELLOWSHIP, RA, TA appointment that is NEED-BASED then FAFSA is used to determine the final amount awarded. IF its not NEED-BASED then you do not need to fill it out. Also as i stated on the other thread, that if you intend to get Federal Loans, that is based on FAFSA as that is NEED-BASED.

These questions should have been answered in Undergrad as that is when you first did FAFSA.

For all the Knowledge some physics majors on this board have, they should have taken an economics course or two. It could come in handy, especially in a couple of years.

Edit: I assume many people like myself are going into graduate school due to *education inflation* and very high unemployment/lack of jobs. Also, FAFSA may have a deadline of June (Federal Deadline) but schools can and will have a much earlier deadline.

[grae313]

FASFA and RA/TA are two separate things. they have nothing to do with it. FAFSA is a NEED-BASED decision. So if you have a FELLOWSHIP, RA, TA appointment that is NEED-BASED then FAFSA is used to determine the final amount awarded. IF its not NEED-BASED then you do not need to fill it out. Also as i stated on the other thread, that if you intend to get Federal Loans, that is based on FAFSA as that is NEED-BASED.

These questions should have been answered in Undergrad as that is when you first did FAFSA.

For all the Knowledge some physics majors on this board have, they should have taken an economics course or two. It could come in handy, especially in a couple of years.

Edit: I assume many people like myself are going into graduate school due to *education inflation* and very high unemployment/lack of jobs. Also, FAFSA may have a deadline of June (Federal Deadline) but schools can and will have a much earlier deadline.

Chill, chewy. You stated that everyone needs to fill it out, that's just not true. You need to fill it out if you want federal grants or if you want to compete for need-based fellowships, and of course that makes perfect sense and is somewhat obvious. However the vast majority of PhD students are funded through RA/TA/merit fellowships and fafsa never ever comes up. It's a bit silly to tell everyone here they need to fill out fafsa when in reality probably less than 1% of physics PhD students ever need to fill it out.

[chewy]

dont worry, i am chill. I jsut wanted to emphazies the difference between

Need-Based
Merit-Based
Credit-Based awards

I clearly stated that if its not need-based you don't need to do it. but if its need-based then you do need to do it. and watch out for deadlines. but people on here ask questions that never even heard of this thing called "FAFSA".

Its like where have you been living during the past 4 years of undergrad.

[grae313]

dont worry, i am chill. I jsut wanted to emphazies the difference between

Need-Based
Merit-Based
Credit-Based awards

I clearly stated that if its not need-based you don't need to do it. but if its need-based then you do need to do it. and watch out for deadlines. but people on here ask questions that never even heard of this thing called "FAFSA".

Its like where have you been living during the past 4 years of undergrad.

OK, I hear ya. As for me the way fafsa evaluates financial need disqualified me from getting any assistance after they changed the rules, so I stopped applying. The fed expected my parents to pay for my college education out of their retirement accounts, or to sell their non-liquid assets. Didn't want that, and definitely didn't want any loans, so I just worked 40 hours a week and stopped applying after my first year. I also went to a crap state school with very low tuition and fortunately had a meager trust fund that managed to just get me through undergrad.

[jmason86]

Haha.. I didn't mean for this to become a heated debate when I started this thread. The majority of my undergrad was paid for by grants because my parents income is so low. Now that I'm 24, I'm technically independent, but I still included my mom's income information on the fafsa just in case it would help.

So it sounds like for me, the fafsa may or may not be useful. But, it took about 10 minutes to fill out so definitely couldn't hurt Might even get me a bit of additional need based money.

[chewy]

1st. your considered independent on FAFSA if your seeking a masters or PhD, as you are considered a professionals student.

2nd it won't help putting your parents info on FAFSA. In fact it will hurt. When you file a FAFSA at the end is the EFC (expected family contribution). you want that value ot be 0. so you want to show you make the least amount of money. By putting your other families info, the gov't assumes your parents are going to help pay for your graduate career, which i would assume is not the case. If I could I wouldn't have put my parents info on for undergrad, but by law you have to for undergrad unless your considered independent, which is hard to do for undergrad. The Goal is to show the LEAST amount of income, (i.e. least money in bank account, investments, real estate ect). The more money you show you have the less you get....

Thats why I was saying physics majors should take economics or accounting so you know the *tricks*.

[jmason86]

hmpf.

[chewy]

I don't want to sound mean, as i am from a middle middle class, but this is an example as to why college tuition does open the laws of economics and is going through the roof. I suggest everyone take 10 minutes of their time and watch this video form Peter Schiff on why college tuition. Were physics majors here, surely you too can correlate the information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upzjTV8znlI

essentially it goes like this. ITs due to all the Grants and Student Loans and Government guarantee/money that causes tuition to go up. but PLEASE watch the video. Physics and Austrian economics are quite interconnected.

[bulldog]

Yeah we should get rid of the government! Then college would be free!!!

[kroner]

I don't want to sound mean, as i am from a middle middle class, but this is an example as to why college tuition does open the laws of economics and is going through the roof. I suggest everyone take 10 minutes of their time and watch this video form Peter Schiff on why college tuition. Were physics majors here, surely you too can correlate the information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upzjTV8znlI

essentially it goes like this. ITs due to all the Grants and Student Loans and Government guarantee/money that causes tuition to go up. but PLEASE watch the video. Physics and Austrian economics are quite interconnected.

Anyone who's taken economics 101 could tell you that by subsidizing college we can expect that: (a) the number of people going to college will increase, (b) the amount of money the colleges will get per student will increase (which is their nominal tuition), and (c) the average amount of money each student pays will decrease.

Now the subsidies are targeted at the poor, which means that while average cost to students drops, wealthier students who don't qualify get hit with higher cost. It's also true that the subsidies aren't free. We pay for them with our taxes (theoretically) and so you could also argue that the subsidies do increase the price per student we pay collectively as a society. So in that sense Peter Schiff isn't strictly wrong in what he's claiming. But it's also worth asking what a more pure market would look like here.

First, many fewer people would go to college because most simply wouldn't be able to afford it. Only the rich would be able to pay, and this would be especially true for the most elite universities which would be most expensive. These rich people would pay less in tuition so that would be great for them, while students from poor families would be fresh out of luck, no matter how qualified. So answering the question of whether to subsidize college comes down to what your priorities are. If you think college is a privilege reserved for the rich, and that they should get a better deal while poor people get screwed, then yes subsidizing college is bad.

[jmason86]

Peter Schiff talked a lot about student loans but didn't mention grants. How does that come into play

[kroner]

Either one is a subsidy so the basic idea is the same. With grants the government is directly giving people money and with subsidized loans they're giving people loans at below market value, which is also worth something (the government is lending at a loss, or paying lenders to lend for less than they could normally afford).