Financial aid guide for students and parents

Free Application for Federal Student Aid, referred as FAFSA, is a type of form that students and even parents have to fill in order to decide their eligibility for financial aid in US. Most of the institutes, schools and states also utilize information from FAFSA to honor non-federal aid. FAFSA is a first step of financial aid process. It is utilized to apply for financial aid like grants, scholarships, work study and loans.

FAFSA consist of 102 different questions, which are separated in six categories. The key goal of these questions is to collect your academic financial and personal information.

You also have to reveal your dependency status, identification number and colleges you want to apply. In order to complete all the details of FAFSA properly, you will also require copies of income tax return of last two years. Your responses to FAFSA questions are entered into the formula and the result of all responses come out as Expected Family Contribution or EFC. It evaluates the financial strength of your family and it is used in order to determine your eligibility for financial aid. The schools’ list that you write in the questionnaire also assists to determine, whether you are eligible for any state or school aid in addition to the financial aid.

Your FAFSA details and EFC are provided to all the institutes you listed in FAFSA. Those institutes use your EFC information to develop financial aid packages which assist you to meet financial need of your education. Financial need is nothing but a difference between cost of attendance of your school and your EFC. If your family is passing through some exceptional circumstances, then you can discuss those in financial aid office. Each college entails students to complete their FAFSA formalities. Even if you think that you will not qualify for need-based financial aid, you still have to file the FAFSA. If you want to take unsubsidized loan like Stafford, which is not related with any financial need, but you still need to file FAFSA.

It is definitely a great thing to pay your college fees through scholarships and complete your education without any debt. But this situation is more a dream than reality for many students. In most of the cases, your education bills or fees will outweigh your earnings or income. So, in order to cope up with such a situation, you will require an appropriate financial planning and that planning starts with the FAFSA.