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I just attended a college financial aid meeting at D's school tonight. The "expert" there said something I found somewhat troubling. She said that the FAFSA only allows you to name five colleges who will receive the report from the Federal Government. I asked, "What if your child is applying to seven schools?" She said, "then you would have to choose which five out of the seven schools you'll be applying to for financial assistance." I was surprised.

I've gotten a lot of good and timely information from CC, but I've never read anything about having a five school limit for FAFSA purposes. It appears that lots of CC seniors are applying to at least 8 schools (my D is also---seven civilian schools, plus the U.S. Air Force Academy), and nobody has mentioned this dilemma. Does anyone know what this is all about? Do you apply to only five schools, or just hope that you are offered admission to only the five who receive your FAFSA report? By the way, my hubby is the one filing the FAFSA. I've not so much as looked at the application. He wasn't able to attend the meeting tonight. Needless to say, I'm just a little freaked.

Poetsheart (aka, Valpal---lost track of password. Had to sign up again...sigh....

By Penguin (Penguin) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 11:11 pm: Edit

The "expert" was wrong. Behold the power of Google: An answer to your question from the FAFSA website

By Rowan (Rowan) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 11:17 pm: Edit

That's not true.

What IS true is that the FAFSA -- online, or on paper -- has room only for a maximum of six schools. However, on the FAFSA's own website, under the FAQs, they list the following question and answer:

If the student wants to apply to more than six schools, what should the student do?

The student can only select up to six schools to receive his or her application information. Once the student receives the processed SAR (Student Aid Report), the student can make the information available to more than six schools through one of the following options. The student can:

1. Photocopy the SAR and mail it to the other schools. ...

2. Replace the schools listed on the paper SAR with other school codes, and mail it back to the U.S. Department of Education. ...

3. Tell the other schools his or her Social Security Number, name, and Data Release Number (DRN) so that they can obtain an electronic version of the student's SAR from the U.S. Department of Education. ...

4. Go to the FAFSA Corrections on the Web site and add more schools by submitting a correction to his or her FAFSA information. ...

Full details on how to do each of these steps can be found on the FAFSA website (or going to google.com, typing in a search of "more than six schools FAFSA" and clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky"). Good luck, and hope this answers the question.

By Valpal (Valpal) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 11:40 pm: Edit

You guys are great---Thanks!

By Valpal (Valpal) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 11:45 pm: Edit

Strange...now I can log on as Valpal again...Oh well