By: Shaan Bharwani
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a financial form provided by the federal government for students applying to and attending college. Its purpose is to designate how much free federal aid a student can receive for their college. If you’re a senior in high school, fill it out now.
Why is it important?
The FAFSA is essentially free money towards your college education. For the coming 2021–2022 school year, it opened on October 1st, 2020, and will be open until June 30th, 2022. The FAFSA determines whether you’re eligible for a Pell Grant, along with how much government aid you’re entitled to. A Pell Grant is a government subsidy for students with significant financial need and is crucial to an affordable college education for low-income students. College expenses have consistently been increasing at an alarming rate, and a lot of Americans cannot afford it, taking out financially crushing loans for bachelor’s degrees. The FAFSA attempts to ease this burden through yearly contributions if you fill it out, but over “$2.6 billion in free college money goes unclaimed” every year (NerdWallet, 2018).
What does it require?
Filling out the FAFSA is a team effort between you and your parents. It requires the prior year’s tax returns and your employed parent(s) W-2 forms. The form takes about an hour to fill out, as it quantifies your standard of living into a single pdf. On the application, you will answer questions about your demographic such as age, race, parental income status, how many people live in your household, and other aspects the government deems relevant. This all results in a number called your Estimated Family Contribution, or EFC, that determines a general ballpark of how much your family will pay for college. Once your FAFSA processes and you receive your EFC, the colleges you apply to estimate your financial need by subtracting your EFC from the cost of attendance. This gives them your estimated financial need, which will be met with federal and institutional grants, and make the cost of attendance significantly more manageable.
Why now?
Several states provide extra financial aid on a first-come-first-serve basis. These states include “Alaska, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Washington” (Cappex, 2017). The extra aid comes in the form of institutional scholarships and work-study programs that do not need to be paid back. Even if you do not live in any of the states above, fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible so colleges have it before they review your application. Since some college deadlines have already passed, with others arriving shortly, FAFSAs need to be arriving at the schools to ensure your tuition offers aren’t overwhelmingly exacerbating.
What Next?
Once your FAFSA is submitted, you’re not done. There are still steps to take to ensure your successful transition into your dream college. Several articles provide specific tips about individual colleges and what to ask of them. General suggestions include researching all colleges you’re applying to, especially private institutions, and determining whether they require a CSS Profile. A CSS Profile is essentially a FAFSA for private universities that “determines financial eligibility for non-federal aid” (Forbes, 2020). Colleges use it to determine how much money each school will give to you and the Profile, accessed through CollegeBoard, is much more specific than the FAFSA. Another big thing to keep in mind about the FAFSA is that different schools will provide you different amounts of financial aid, so use that to your best advantage when negotiating the price downward.
The FAFSA may seem overwhelming as part of an already-strenuous college application process, but it is a fairly simple process in place only to help you. It is a very important tool to ensure access to affordable education after high school. Fill it out as soon as possible for maximum aid and a sense of security as admission decisions inch closer.