HAPPY NEW YEAR—It's FAFSA TIME

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!  It's now time to apply for financial aid, which means filling out your FAFSA.  The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the base requirement for receiving all need-based college aid, whether grants, scholarships, or loans. So, time to get started.

To fill in the FAFSA, go to http://www.fafsa.gov   It is KEY to make sure you're at the .gov site, and not to go to a .com address. There are many FAFSA scam sites out there that will charge you for submitting the FAFSA, but remember the first F in FAFSA stands for FREE.

You can submit your FAFSA any time up through March 2nd in California (other states may have different deadlines),  but some colleges will have earlier deadlines for "priority" consideration or for specific scholarships.

What information/records will you need when filling out the FAFSA form?
  • Social Security Number (student/parents-if parents do not have SSN, use all zeroes)
  • Driver's License Number (student's)
  • Financial information for student & parents, including:
    • Current Bank statements
    • Current information on businesses, investments, mortgages
    • 2009 W-2, 1099, and/or other earnings records
    • Federal Income tax returns (if you haven't done 2009 yet, you can base it on 2008 or your estimate of 2009 and update later)
    • Any untaxed income information (e.g. child support, veteran's benefits)
You will need to sign the completed FAFSA, either online with a PIN or by sending in a paper signature form.  Both student and parents need to apply for a PIN for electronic signature by going to: http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp).  (In the case of a student whose parent(s) do not have a social security number, the parent has to mail in a signature form.)

After submitting the FAFSA, you will receive an SAR (Student Aid Report) that summarizes the data you entered and providing you with the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount of money that the Federal Government has determined your family can afford to contribute to the student's college education.

The difference between the EFC and the Total Cost of Attendance at a given college is your "demonstrated need." 

In later posts, we'll talk in more detail about how the colleges use this information to determine your Financial Aid offers.  We'll also discuss the CSS Profile, which is another Fiancial Aid form that is used by private colleges and universities.

Comments

grants for single moms said…
hi'you really work hard,it's the first time to be here but sure it won't be the last ,your blog looks great so please keep blogging..have anice day..
http://financialaid-scholarships.blogspot.com/
January 26, 2010 at 3:29 PM
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