FAFSA: Your Ultimate College Funding Resource
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid - hereafter known as and always referred to as FAFSA - is a form you must complete if you want to be considered for federal financial aid (AKA potentially free money from the US government). It will also be the key to gaining access to many other, non-governmental sources of financial aid. FAFSA is often used by non-federal organizations, such as scholarship organizations, to determine your eligibility for financial aid. So basically, this is a form you really should be filling out. And as the CollegeBoard website aptly puts it, “Submitting the FAFSA is the most important thing you can do if you want financial aid”. Here are some key facts about it:
All images in this article will come from the official FAFSA Twitter
There are no essay questions or personal statements like a college app. Most of the form is personal information and you/your parents’/guardians’ financial information - stuff from tax filings.
You will need to fill a new FAFSA form for each year you go to school. While the app opens in October (for the following academic year), the federal deadline isn’t until June 30. So for the 2021-2022 academic year, the FAFSA deadline is June 30, 2021. However, there are state and possibly college-specific deadlines you should check for yourself.
While the application is free and composed of entirely factual questions, it can take a couple hours to complete, especially if you don’t have the needed numbers ready.
For a nifty all-in-one guide on what you’ll need and tips on how to fill it out, check out this graphic.
If you really want to know ahead of time exactly what the questions are, here’s the 2021-2022 academic year version of the FAFSA. As you can see, it’s mostly tax-related information, so if you are a dependent (and you almost definitely are if you’re under the age of 24) you’re going to need to work with your parents/guardians to get this done. Fortunately, there is a tool in the form that lets you connect digitally to the IRS tax filings and auto-fill most of the questions - highly recommended to do this (if you can) to save time. Most of the form’s questions have a clickable icon next to them that provide additional help as well.
Once you do file your FAFSA, the answers you provide - primarily your family income in the past year - will determine how much federal aid you’re eligible for. This is determined by the “need-based” score FAFSA calculates that is shown to you after you submit, called the expected family contribution (EFC). The difference between this EFC number and your cost of attendance (tuition, room and board, etc.) is generally what you’ll be offered in financial aid. Soon after, you’ll be sent your official offer of financial aid, and you can then choose which parts of it you want to accept. Most often accepting the aid simply means logging onto your student account at your college and completing the financial aid form - but this is another area you should check with your own school ahead of time. The aid you do receive can come in the form of:
Grants
Work-study
Loans
We’ll get more into these financial aid options next. Besides being useful for qualifying for federal grants and other funding opportunities, one of the biggest payoffs from filling out the FAFSA is access to those federal student loans specifically. Federal loans will almost always have lower interest rates than private loans (meaning you’ll be required to pay less back over time), typically have friendlier terms for interest accrual (no interest while in school) and forgiveness, and overall form a huge pool of funds you want to have open as an option. If you have to take out student loans, then federal loans are by far the best option.
The FAFSA application can seem overwhelming at first, but if you have the relevant information prepared then it’s a breeze. Still, you may have many more questions about the process that wasn’t covered here. In that case, check out the FAFSA FAQ, or try talking to a school counselor/admission officer/financial aid officer.
By the way, you may have noticed that most of the graphics used in this map are from the FAFSA organization itself. Check out the FAFSA account on Twitter, which is always providing timely information and often in the form of these cute graphics!
