FAFSA!!!!!!!!!!

[DrSuga]

Hey,
I figured I would add a post about fafsa, since jan 1st is quickly approaching and it is the earliest fafsa can be submitted. I know you can do it online, but does anyone know what to do about the list of schools? Since it takes about 4-6 to be processed, and many fin. aid. deadlines are in feb/march, how do you know which schools to put? For example, I was told by one school to fill it out ASAP, even before I hear of an acceptance. Should we do this for all schools? If we don't list schools now, can we add them later? What are other SDN'ers planning to do? I need advice!!!!!!!

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[P60001]

I am going to list every school on my FAFSA that I am still be considered for. There are only a few spots on the form to enter school codes. The web site for FAFSA list a couple seperate ways to add more schools. Look under their FAQ section.
Rob

 

[Ibis]

This brings up a concern. Do the individual med schools see the schools you documented on the form? I wouldn't want a school that has accepted me to see a list of other institutions I'm considering to attend, provided I get accepted. Anyone know? (I'm clueless)

 

[sandflea]

Originally posted by DrSuga:
•Hey,
I figured I would add a post about fafsa, since jan 1st is quickly approaching and it is the earliest fafsa can be submitted. I know you can do it online, but does anyone know what to do about the list of schools? Since it takes about 4-6 to be processed, and many fin. aid. deadlines are in feb/march, how do you know which schools to put? For example, I was told by one school to fill it out ASAP, even before I hear of an acceptance. Should we do this for all schools? If we don't list schools now, can we add them later? What are other SDN'ers planning to do? I need advice!!!!!!!•••

you need to have your tax information for 2001 in order before you can fill out a FAFSA (as well as your parents' if you are looking for certain kinds of scholarship aid), so unless you're way more on the ball than the rest of us, you can't fill it out right on jan 1st. the financial aid deadline at many schools is around march 1st, but that doesn't mean your FAFSA needs to be processed by then--it means that it has to be *filed* by then. so in essence, you have 2 months to work on it and you can file it anytime between now and the deadline (i think march 1st is the standard, universal deadline for financial aid consideration, but i may not be right about that).

and whoever told you to file it even without an acceptance is right: if you wait until you have an acceptance in hand, and you don't get that acceptance until well past the fin aid deadline, you may be out of luck for any of the best aid they have to offer (like grant money, which goes quick). it's better to get the paperwork in now, even if you still have no idea where you'll be next fall. i think you can only fill out the online app if you filed a FAFSA the previous year (and then they send you a PIN to access the app online)--otherwise i think you have to fill out the paper version, although that may have changed, as i haven't had to fill one of these out since college several years ago.

you can list multiple schools on the FAFSA and all will receive the information. as far as whether or not the admissions office will see where else you're applying, personally i think that shouldn't be a concern if you have financial aid funds on the line. i can't say for sure, but i doubt that the admissions office sees any of that anyway--financial aid is probably handled by someone totally different. so i would list any school that you think you have a shot at or may consider attending. i'm not going to worry about who may see the information.

hope this helps!

 

[DrSuga]

you need to have your tax information for 2001 in order before you can fill out a FAFSA

the paper fafsa states "you don't need to file your tax return before you submit your fafsa...filling out your tax return first will make completing the FAFSA easier. however, you do not need to submit your tax return to the IRS before you submit your FAFSA."

thanks a bunch sandflea for the help!!!!!!!

 

[sandflea]

Originally posted by DrSuga:
•you need to have your tax information for 2001 in order before you can fill out a FAFSA

the paper fafsa states "you don't need to file your tax return before you submit your fafsa...filling out your tax return first will make completing the FAFSA easier. however, you do not need to submit your tax return to the IRS before you submit your FAFSA."

thanks a bunch sandflea for the help!!!!!!! •••

you're welcome for the help. but just to clarify: i didn't mean that you had to actually file your tax stuff before you complete the FAFSA. what i meant by 'having your tax info in order' was just that you needed to have received your W2's and filled out the tax paperwork, because the FAFSA asks for some numbers from the completed tax return. and if you already have this completed by jan 1st, then you're way ahead of me.

 

[lilycat]

Sandflea was somewhat correct in that you should have your W-2 at least before you start filling out your paperwork (assuming you worked last year).

Even if you haven't done a FAFSA before, you can use the on-line application (at least that was how it worked last year).

When I was going through this last year, I was advised to submit all the schools that I had interviewed at. It's fairly easy to make changes to the online FAFSA, so if you interview at more schools later in the winter, it shouldn't be a problem to add them on.

Many schools don't start sending out their own financial aid paperwork until March or April anyways, so there is still a lot of time for this process. Good luck.

 

[Amy B]

During one of my interviews, the finacial aid office had a person talk to us. She said we fill out the form and put down any and all schools that we would need financial aid to attend. The schools don't see that. It is all federal, I think.

If you want $$$$, you better put all the schools you might be accepted at otherwise you will be out of luck.

 

[quaileggs]

Wait a minute! My understanding is that parents info does not go on FAFSA but on various other individiulschool/supplementary financial forms relating to insitutional aid and special programs that come LATER. For the FAFSA, all professional or graduate students are automatically considered independent. FAFSA is just for the federal aid and the feds don't want to know about your parents info.
Correct me if I am wrong??!!

 

[Ibis]

Thanks Amy Beth!

 

[Spang]

quaileggs:

At the bottom of page 4 of the 2002-2003 FAFSA (I got mine in the mail yesterday) at the end of the yes/no section to determine if you're independent, it says "If you are a health profession student, your school may require you to complete Step Four (parents' info) even if you answered "Yes" in step Three."

Additionally the Financial Aid page at my school says:

"Note that although graduate students are independent, health professions graduate students must provide parental information to be considered for any of the programs administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

Hope this helps.

Spang

BTW: If you're going to fill it out online you should log on now and request a PIN which MUST be sent to you via US Mail in order to complete the online app.

 

[omores]

Quaileggs, Spang is absolutely right about parental information being required by medical schools, despite the fact that the federal government considers you independent.

Even though the FAFSA is what is used to determine your elegibility for government loans, it also generates a handy-dandy printout of income and assets (yours and your parents) as well as an Expected Family Contribution, which is what the schools use to generate their own aid packages.

Even though each school may want you to fill out its own set of forms (or the enormously complicated NeedAccess online thing -- ugh!), you've still got to put parental information on the FAFSA as well. This is often the rate-limiting step: urging, cajoling, begging, pleading with your parents to get their tax stuff in order. Better start working on them now!

 

[lilycat]

By the way, one fascinating thing I found out from my FAO recently is that the closer your parents are to retirement (or if they are already in retirement), the more their finances are protected from being used in the expected family contribution. I was very excited to find that out.

 

[quaileggs]

Omores and Spang, thanks for the info. This is going to be really messy for me. I'm going to have to ask one of my med schools for advice. I am 32, have been married for 10 years, have 3 kids. My parents are living but have been divorced since 1985. I have not lived at home since 1987. Additionally my mom remarried but recently separated with intent to divorce her 2nd husband, who has $ but has never been a "father figure" for me (never met the guy til I was 26). Does anyone have any idea which "parents" I include on my FAFSA. OH...and also my dad is a deadbeat with no $...he is nearly a bum ..never paid child support ..and I'd be surprised if he has had any (legal)income or filed taxes since the late 80s. What fun to sort this out.

 

[omores]

Quaileggs:

Aieee, what a mess. Financial aid forms are not designed for those with complicated lives.

Most of my problems came from the fact that my parents live and work in Canada. The tax year there is later than the US one, so income figures are not available in time for deadlines. Then there's the inability of FAFSA to handle "foreign" parents -- you HAVE to specify a state, and you can't leave it blank....Moreover, there's the continual joy of fluctuating exchange rates. Drove me bonkers.

Your best bet is make contact with each school's financial aid office, find someone who seems to understand the complexity of the situation, and then keep working with that person.

There are, by the way, a very few medical schools that may allow you to be considered financially independent from your parents due to your advanced age My school is one of the rare ones: after informing the Duke financial aid folks that I was in my 30s, married, and had been financially self-supporting for 12 years, they elected to remove my parents from the financial picture. Bless their hearts. I've heard that Stanford has a similar policy. Anyone know of any other schools?

Best of luck with all this. Be patient and persistent and it will all work out -- eventually!