While preparing for your first (or subsequent) year of college is often an exciting journey, the process of planning, researching, and figuring out how to pay for college can turn it into a stressful one. In this post, we will take you through the most common questions and answers pertaining to the FAFSA and applying for financial aid, and include some bonus resources to help you get ahead and stay on track.
FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Once you have filled out this form, your college or university will take your information and use it to determine your eligibility for receiving financial aid to help you pay for school.
The FAFSA form is available on October 1 for the next school year. In order to meet FAFSA deadlines, we recommend that you complete it as soon as possible (before this date would be ideal!) to ensure that everything is correctly processed.
The process of submitting your FAFSA may seem daunting, but if you follow these steps, it doesn’t have to be!
Your FSA ID is a username and password that allows you to easily access your FAFSA form, the myStudentAid app, and more. Creating your FSA ID takes just a couple of minutes, and we highly recommend you create your ID before you sit down to fill out the FAFSA, as this will cut down on potential delays in the process.
*Important note* If you are a dependent student, one of your parents will also need to create his or her own FSA ID (the parent who creates the ID should be the one whose information is reported on the FAFSA form) in order to be able to sign your application once you have finished filling it out.
According to Studentaid.gov, the following documents or information may be helpful to have on hand as you fill out the FAFSA:
It is crucial to make sure that you have all of this information on hand and organized for when you go to fill out the FAFSA.
*Tip from us: Print out all necessary documents and information, label them, and store them in a folder that you can both easily access and keep somewhere safe so it won’t get lost or damaged.
Students have four options when it comes to filling out the FAFSA: Apply online, via the myStudentAid app, via PDF, or via print-out of the PDF. We recommend either applying online at fafsa.gov or filling out the FAFSA PDF, which must then be printed out and mailed in for processing.
When you are filling out the FAFSA, you will see that you must list at least one school to receive your information. Each school you list on your form will use your information to determine how much and what types of aid you are eligible to receive. When you fill out the form online or in the mobile app, you can list up to 10 schools, but be aware that if you fill out the form via PDF, you may only list up to 4.
Simply put, you should list any school that you are planning on applying to on your FAFSA form, regardless of whether or not you have been accepted.
Quick tips for filling out the FAFSA:
Make sure that you sign in with your FSA ID when you go to sign and submit your FAFSA, as this will ensure that the form is processed correctly and quickly. Once you have submitted your form, you should automatically receive a confirmation email (check your spam/junk mail too!).
*Tip from us: If you have a sibling who also needs a FAFSA form filled out, check your confirmation page for the option to have the parent information transferred to the other student’s application.
Once you have submitted your FAFSA, you can log into your account at fafsa.gov (with your FSA ID username and password) to check on the status of your application. Within a few weeks of submitting your application, you should receive your Student Aid Report (SAR), which is essentially a summary of all of the information you submitted in your FAFSA. It is your job to go through your SAR and make sure all of the information is 100% correct!
Once you have been accepted to a college or university that was listed on your FAFSA, that school will send you either an electronic or paper offer (aka award letter) which will tell you how much aid you are eligible to receive.
*Tip from us: Once you have received your award letter, it is important to go through it and understand exactly what types of aid are being offered (loans vs grants vs scholarships), what aid you really need, and then decide what you are going to accept.
Now, you should be fully versed on what the FAFSA is, how to fill it out, and what to do once you have received your aid offer. For more information on the FAFSA, check out our bonus resources below!