In order to get financial aid, you must apply for it. Your first step is to file the FASFA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Here are some basic facts about the FASFA.
What is FASFA?
The FAFSA is the primary application for need-based financial aid. Colleges use the information from your FAFSA to determine your eligibility for financial aid. Colleges may also use information from your FAFSA to award private scholarships from their own funds, and your state may require the FAFSA to determine state-funded college aid.
Don’t Assume Eligibility
You should file a FASFA even if you think you won’t qualify for financial aid. You must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to receive any type of federal student aid. Universities use this information to determine your eligibility for aid including scholarships, grants and loans.
Required Information
The FASFA asks information about both students and parents, especially for those who are unmarried and under the age of 24. This information includes information about both the students and parents income and assets. Note that for FAFSA reporting purposes, the term “parent” refers only to your legal (biological or adoptive) parent or stepparent, or a person that the state has deemed your legal parent. Other family members or people you live with are not considered “parents” unless they have legally adopted you.
If your parents do not claim you as a dependent, you do not, in that case, need to report information about them on the FAFSA. The FAFSA form will walk you through a series of questions that will determine if you are an independent or dependent student.
Complete Your FASFA
The FAFSA can be completed on your mobile device or computer, or you can download a PDF of the form, print it out and submit it on paper. You will need you and your parents' income tax return from two years prior to your anticipated college entrance date to complete your FASFA. For example, students planning to enroll in college in the fall of 2024, would use tax data from 2022.
FASFA Results
Your FASFA will not tell you how much financial aid you’ll receive. Technically, the information from your FAFSA only determines your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) , which is a number that colleges use to determine a student’s financial aid eligibility. The EFC is not, as its name implies, an exact dollar amount that students and their families will be expected or required to pay for college. You'll receive your EFC from one to three weeks after submitting your FAFSA in a document called the Student Aid Report (SAR).
Want more info? Visit the Federal Student Aid site here.