The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a form that you should fill out to get financial aid from the federal government to pay your college fees. Every year more than 13 million students fill up the FAFSA form and get over $120 billion in grants, work-study, and low-interest loans from the US Department of Education. Many institutes and states use the FAFSA information to determine which students are eligible for financial aid. To fill up the form, you have to provide information about your and your family’s finances, including the tax returns.
These are the 10 important facts related to the FAFSA that you should aware:
1. Completing FAFSA may grant you different types of financial aid:
By completing the FAFSA, you will get more options to choose from. You don’t have to attend any of the colleges you list on your application. Also, there is no need to accept all or any of the aid you are offered from the colleges in your financial aid offer letters. You can choose the aid you like and reject the rest of them. FAFSA provides you mainly three options, they are:
- More College Options: After completing the FAFSA, your chances will increase of receiving federal, state, and institutional aid, which can make attending a certain college more affordable.
- More Financial Aid Options: Most of the federal, institutional, and state aid is offered to the students only if they have completed our FAFSA. This means most of the aid options are potentially available to you.
- More Potential Job Options: After completing the FAFSA, you will be considered for the work-study, a federal aid program, which will allow eligible candidates to work part-time, on-campus jobs to learn money to help their educational expenses.
2. FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid:
The FAFSA is a need-based financial aid for the students offered by the federal government and it is completely free to apply. By using the details from the FAFSA application, colleges choose the eligible candidates for federally funded scholarships, grants, and loans. Colleges also use this information to provide private scholarships from their own funds, and other states may require the FAFSA to determine state-funded college aid.
3. Apply for the FAFSA form even if you believe you won’t qualify:
There are many reasons why some students don’t fill up the FAFSA form. They believe their family income is too high to qualify the financial aid or that the process is just too complicated. But those who fill up the FAFSA, will at least qualify for a federally insured, direct student loan and perhaps other grants, work-study, or loans.
4. FAFSA Asks for Information about Parents:
Most of the students have to add parents/legal guardians as contributors to their FAFSA, even if they have a job and file their taxes. If you are having any problem accessing your parent’s income information, then you should talk to your school counsellor or connect with your college’s financial aid official to learn your options.
If you are a student living with one or more undocumented parents, still complete the FAFSA with your Social Security Number. Parents without an SSN can still make a StudentAid.gov account and contribute to a student’s FAFSA by using the FSA’s manual identity verification process.
You should understand that personal data submitted through the FAFSA, including a contributor’s citizenship status, may or may not be protected by the US Department of Education. Contributing to a student’s FAFSA as an undocumented parent generally should not affect their eligibility to get federal financial aid, and there won’t be any other potential risks.
5. FAFSA won’t tell you how much financial aid you will get:
Usually, the information provided on your FAFSA application will only determine your Student Aid Index (SAI), a number that colleges use to determine a student’s eligibility for financial aid. It is not an exam dollar amount that student and their families will get to pay the college fees. After completing the SAI, students will get a submission summary containing the official SAI calculation and the eligibility to receive a Federal Pell Grant.
6. Complete the FAFSA as soon as possible:
The FAFSA is usually released every year on the month of October 1. Make sure to fill up the application form and submit it before the FAFSA deadline set by the institute you are planning to apply. If you fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible, you will get some advantages. Because many institutes distribute the financial aid on a first come first served basis.
7. Contributors must have an FSA ID and provide consent:
To fill up the FAFSA, all contributor must have a StudentAid.Gov account and an FSA ID, so that they can provide their consent to having their federal tax information transferred directly from the IRS into the FAFSA form. The contributor must give consent, even if they do not have a social security number, never file taxes, or file taxes in another country. Without the consent of the contributors, the student is not eligible for any federal aid other than a direct unsubsidized loan.
8. Add up to 20 Colleges to Get Your FAFSA & Student Aid Report:
You should add up to 20 colleges on the application form and up to 10 schools on the paper-based application form. Regardless of the online or paper-based FAFSA application form, please be sure to list at least one school on your form. You can always add more schools to your FAFSA form anytime, after you submit it or you can even remove previously added schools. Those selected colleges will get the FAFSA Submission Summary after submitting the form, but they won’t see the other colleges that you have selected on your FAFSA form.
9. FAFSA help is available:
If you need any help filling up the FAFSA form, then you can ask for help without any hesitation. There are various resources available that will help you, including the high school guidance counsellor, the financial aid office of a school you are applying to, etc.
10. Called for the FAFSA verification process:
Sometimes, you have to provide your documents to the colleges for verification. Some schools verify all the candidate’s forms and some are selected randomly. Make sure to save the records and materials that you have used to fill up the FAFSA form.
How to Fill Out the FAFSA Form?
There are mainly two ways to fill out the FAFSA form.
- Online at StudentAid.gov: If you are starting the FAFSA form for the first time, then you have to select “Log in to Start” and provide your login credentials to access the FAFSA form.
- By printing the FAFSA PDF: You have to print out and mail the FAFSA PDF for processing.
If you are applying for the summer session, then you have to contact the financial aid office at your college or career/trade school to check which school year you should select while filling out your FAFSA form.
We suggest you fill up the FAFSA form online. It provides some useful tips to understand the questions, which can make it a lot easier to fill out and submit the application. While filling up the online form, you will be asked to create a Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID). To create an FSA ID, you will need a Social Security Number, Name, and Date of Birth. Your FSA ID will be used to sign the online form. Also, one of your parents has to sign off on your FAFSA, so they will need to create an FSA ID too.
FAQs – FAFSA Form
Ques: How can I check the status of my FAFSA form?
Ans: In order to check the status of your FAFSA form, you have to login to StudentAid.gov and find your application status in the Status Centre under the “My Activity” option.
Ques: How to add college grants or scholarship benefits to my FAFSA form?
Ans: Students usually answer this question with a zero, because most of the grants and scholarships include the Federal Pell Grants, which are not considered taxable income.
Ques: What do I mention in my current total of cash, checking accounts, and savings accounts on my FAFSA form?
Ans: Add the account balances of your cash, savings, and checking accounts as the day you submit your FAFSA form. You shouldn’t include student aid, retirement plans, or investments.
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