FAFSA/Financial Aid question

[hopskipjump]

So - we sent in the FAFSA. Some of the university portals show that they received it (others still have a "reminder," but specify that if you've already sent it in, they just haven't updated the portals yet to show that).

 

At what point will we KNOW that they have evaluated the FAFSA and decided if/when/maybe/please dd will receive any additional financial aid?

 

Right now, most of the portals show some mixture of the following:

 

* FAFSA received

* Our EFC (hahahahahahahahhaHAHA!!! :smilielol5: :scared: )

* $xx,xxx Academic Scholarship Offer

* That's It.

 

So, we are unsure whether they are saying "You have been offered $xx,xxx financial dollars and this includes academic aid, thankyouverymuch." OR if it's just defaulted right now to show her academic aid and they'll add the rest of the information sometime in March.

 

I know they are all different - I guess I'm just wondering if anyone's heard the FULL Financial information from anywhere (except those who applied EA... I assume those ppl had most of their information sent in very early on)?
Or is it still common to have only half-the-picture right now?

[Tsuga]

So, they are showing an EFC, but not showing any need aid or other offers? What do the headings say for those lists? Are these public or private institutions? Did you fill in anything but the FAFSA?

 

In my experience in Washington, for public schools at least, having the EFC means you have your answer. If your EFC is equal to tuition, room and board, that's it. However if it falls short, then I'd wait. But that really only applies to my experience.

 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Every school DS applied to sent us a financial aid package.  It didn't matter if DS received only merit aid or a combination of merit and need based aid.  

I would sit tight for a bit and see if financial aid letters arrive.  If you are especially concerned about a particular school, call the financial aid office and ask.

[sassenach]

We didn't get the full offer until it came in the mail/email. For dd's top school, we knew the efc and merit aide long before we knew the rest.

 

For another school, other than loans (which also get listed in the package, they didn't offer anything else. But for dd's school, she ended up offered 3 different grants that we didn't even know about coming in. Her final offer had $9500 of surprise grants. That was a good day!

 

So wait for the final email.

[hopskipjump]

:thumbup1:  great!

 

That is what I thought I remembered (wait for the final total package) - but it's been so long, and I've read so. many. things. it's all becoming a bit jumbled in my head.

 

And the next two weeks are frightfully busy...having to call and ask each university was not high on my, or dds, list of things we could squeeze in this week.

 

So, we will wait. :)

 

 

[Nancy in NH]

We didn't get the full offer until it came in the mail/email. For dd's top school, we knew the efc and merit aide long before we knew the rest.

 

For another school, other than loans (which also get listed in the package, they didn't offer anything else. But for dd's school, she ended up offered 3 different grants that we didn't even know about coming in. Her final offer had $9500 of surprise grants. That was a good day!

 

So wait for the final email.

 

That's awesome!  I am praying for a day like this.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Nancy in NH