The FAFSA is your first and most important step to getting the money you need to help you pay for college.
And the only way to find out if you qualify for financial aid (such as federal and state grants and scholarships) and low-cost federal student loans is to complete and submit a FAFSA.
The U.S. Department of Education uses your FAFSA information to calculate your EPC and determine your eligibility for federal financial aid.
There’s absolutely nothing to lose when you complete a FAFSA form, even if you don’t think you’ll qualify for student aid. And since there are no fees for applying, it couldn’t hurt, could it? Heck, it just might save you thousands of dollars.
If you’re on the fence, here are three (3) options for you to complete and submit a FAFSA: online, PDF and paper.
- Online (FAFSA on the Web) at www.fafsa.ed.gov
- PDF FAFSA (download file) at www.studentaid.ed.gov/PDFfafsa
- Paper FAFSA
If you don’t have Internet access, you can request a paper FAFSA by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) or 1-319-337-5665.
In addition to submitting your FAFSA, be sure to meet your FAFSA deadline. With more students vying for aid, don’t eliminate yourself by missing a deadline. When in doubt, contact your school’s financial aid office about the deadline for FAFSA.
For the unknowing, the FAFSA is FREE for all applicants. If you are asked to pay to file the FAFSA, most likely you are NOT on an official government website.
Update: The Department of Education has provided a demonstration of the FAFSA application, which is available now. You can login by using the user name, “eddemo” and the password, “fafsatest.”