High school students can get financial aid for college? What?

[BlsdMama]

Someone just corrected me on another board.  I said that *current* homeschool high school students are not eligible to fill out the FAFSA and receive financial aid.  They can do so once they are college students but not as high school students and not as dual enrolled students.  I have been told I am wrong.  I'm open to being wrong, but am I?  Does anyone have a link?

[TheReader]

You do fill out the FAFSA in the year prior to attending college, so in that regard, you are wrong and they are right. The FAFSA opens in October, priority deadline normally January, for the school year starting the following August, so in that regard, yes, current homeschool high schoolers do fill out the FAFSA for aid....but the aid won't be given until their freshman year of college the following fall.  

I think you can't fill out FAFSA for comm. college until after (or for the semester starting after) you graduate high school, so no, not for dual enrollment stuff, and not for aid given/dispersed to a still in high school student (that I know of; we never bothered with it for comm. college b/c we knew we wouldn't get anything anyway, so I suppose I could be wrong on that). 

[historically accurate]

DDs comm college says she can do the FAFSA, but she's not eligible for anything as a high school student. They did say that she fill it out because the school has a random scholarship available to those who aren't eligible for FAFSA (and you need the statement from FAFSA). We never bothered to fill it out as I am supremely lazy. 

It could be a scholarship like that that the person is thinking of? Possibly they're confused because 529 money can be used? I don't know, but I don't think they can receive assistance except through a designated dual enrollment law (like some states have). 

[catz]

Some states also have different scholarships/options for dual enroll students and might just need that paperwork to jump that hoop?  I don't think they are eligible for federal need based aid. But like dual enrollment is entirely free in our state for kids who are accepted into a program.  I know some different states have different programs.  

[prairiewindmomma]

I just dual enrolled Ds. We have the option of filling out the FAFSA for non-federal aid. They have some scholarships etc Ds would be eligible for if we met certain criteria. This is school specific in our area, but in certain states there is broader applicability. (I am thinking of Georgia and the GAFutures program as an example.)

That said, the Department of Ed has been doing a trial of expanding Pell grants to dual enrolled students. They started a couple of years ago and chose 44 schools—mostly cc—for their study. Maybe you are in one of those? 

[BlsdMama]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I just dual enrolled Ds. We have the option of filling out the FAFSA for non-federal aid. 

We are not one of the places, however, she clarified by stating non-federal aid.  Initially she had used the comment in conjunction that her kids had loans.   Federal loans are not an option for dual enrolled kids - left me fairly certain she was not correct.  However, she further asserted non-federal aid. I didn't know this - nor did I know about the 44 receiving Pell experimentally.  Fascinating!  

Thank you!

[Katy]

As long as you're officially enrolled and pass at least 12 credit hours as a degree seeking student you can get all the same benefits as a traditional freshman.  That's the way it was when I was dual enrolled in the 90's and nothing has changed judging by the multiple kids I know who have done the same thing and graduated high school in the last week.  Some states have additional specific help, like a school district pays for all the classes of a dual enrolled student if they are of high school age and haven't graduated yet, but there are often requirements for that that are location specific.

[Guest]

In my state, you can access some of the state lottery scholarship as a high school student once you have exhausted the DE grant, and that requires filing an FAFSA. We have not pursued it because as I understand it, financial aid is limited, and I’d rather DD not use any of it at the CC, which is pretty cheap compared to most 4 year schools. 

If you matriculate as degree seeking, you can get financial aid, but you may be considered a transfer student when you apply to 4 year schools. We decided that the cost of possibly giving up freshmen scholarships wasn’t worth risking.

[Pegasus]

The FAFSA is only a federal application to determine eligibility for the Pell grant and/or direct student loans (subsidized vs unsubsidized). Period.

States and schools often also use the information in FAFSA for other purposes, such as their own grant/scholarship programs.  Eligibility would depend on that specific program/institution and could easily become confused in people's minds as "money from FAFSA."

Dual enrolled students are definitely eligible for the Lifetime Learning federal tax credit so be sure to take advantage of that.