ag97tx said:

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The school counselor should have an opt out form that you can sign if you don't want to fill out the FAFSA. In terms of graduation from high school you either fill out FAFSA or sign opt out form to meet the requirement.

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I guess my question is the same as the OP's then. I also know we don't qualify for aid and 529 will pay for a good chunk if not all of undergrad. Any point to filling out a FAFSA?

I had no idea anything - FAFSA or a FAFSA opt out - was some type of state requirement. Feels like a data mining effort.

mccjames said:

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Filled it out freshman year and didn't do it again.

Way too much information for something I knew we would not qualify for. It really should not be used for Merit scholarships, imho.

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This. There is no reason to make people do the FAFSA if they know they can't get need based aid. It's very intrusive with a lot of very private information that takes time to put together and when you know that you won't qualify it's frankly insulting. I fume the entire time I do it as we are in the zone of making too much to qualify but not enough to comfortably pay for college. We saved money but not nearly enough and that gets used AGAINST you.

Essentially the more you tried to be responsible the more you are penalized. Why should my wife going back to work a few years ago and us scraping to put away some money be a negative? Yet that's how the system works. We didn't always make decent money so we didn't have the ability to accumulate $250k in a fund to send 2 kids to school, this is a very sore subject for me.

Then after all that work every year you just get the "lol, nope" email with the $5500 loan if you want it that is a drop in the bucket paying for college and has all kinds of strings. Then you get to do it every year as a rinse and repeat. Then I still have to go take out private loans afterward.

In Texas they keep the rate for in state relatively high if you don't qualify for anything compared to other states and we don't have programs like they do in GA or FL that allow kids with good grades to get steep discounts. For most it is cheaper to go OOS to another school who will offer a ton of aid but A&M and Texas simply don't in spite of having the 2 largest Public Endowments in the country and significant Legislature support. Yet they make you fill out the FAFSA just to rub your nose in it every year.

My guess is they will fix this right after both my boys are out of school. Kind of like how my wife was a 1st Gen with parents that made next to nothing and didn't help at all with school and she had to take out loans, now she would have gone for free based on what her FAFSA would have been.

Anyway, I wish they would at least just let you click a box that says "I only wish to be considered for Merit Aid" and not have to fill out a FAFSA if they are going to have the system we have now.