Quick Fafsa Tips College Loans and Grants

With your documents and data collected, you are now ready to enter your data into the application itself. Applications via FAFSA on the Web can be completed and submitted no earlier than January 1 of the year prior to the academic year you want financial assistance. Students wanting financial aid for fall semester or quarter should be prepared to submit their application as soon after January 1 as possible. Paper FAFSAs cannot be postmarked before January 1.

The majority of students need student loans for college but some miss out because they don't properly complete the necessary paperwork. According to the Department of Education's Guide to Federal Student Aid 2007-08, you should "read the FAFSA instructions very carefully. Pay close attention to questions on income because most errors occur in that area." My experience confirms this warning. It is a peculiar phenomenon that those needing financial assistance can sometimes be reckless with the data they provide. The errors in income and asset questions are often errors of complete omission, neglecting to populate the field, or errors in accuracy. The difference between a family whose adjusted gross income is $6,500 is in an entirely different financial aid scenario than a family whose adjusted gross income is $65,000. Look closely and see that the numbers look very similar. It is a truly difficult situation for all involved to have to cancel an award offer that was based on inaccurate financial information. The effort you put into the FAFSA application should mirror the same attention to detail that you brought to your admissions application. Accuracy is the key to a pleasant and problem free financial aid process.

Because the FAFSA application is a straightforward application, we won't give a detailed explanation for filling it out. Rather, I will advise you of a few questions that you should be sure to answer correctly to insure the application works for you. Beside the income and asset questions that should be answered as accurately as possible and according to the FAFSA application directions, the questions that you should be aware of that can cause immeasurable headaches if answered incorrectly are the Social Security number of the student, the "are you a male?" question, the school code, and the signature page.

Your Social Security number must be accurate for several reasons. The FAFSA application cross-references your data with several national databases to confirm your identity. The first and most important match is with the Social Security Administration. The name on your SS card is the name you should put on the application. It is of the utmost importance that you use your name on your FAFSA as it appears on your Social Security card. I strongly recommend that you apply to your colleges of choice using the same name as you intend to use on the FAFSA. A mix up on one of those three applications (Social Security, college application and FAFSA) will inevitably cause a snag somewhere down the line that will slow your application process to a halt.

Men need to check the Male box and women the Female box. This issue always causes either a giggle or an eye roll whenever I explain it. Once again, FAFSA performs a database match with this data. When you answer "yes" to the question "are you male?" or if you fail to answer the question at all, FAFSA assumes that you are a male and performs a database match. This time, they compare your data with the Selective Service database. Males are required to register with the Selective Service upon their 18th birthday. Failure to register renders a student ineligible for federal financial aid in the form of federal student loans. If you are a male and nearing your 18th birthday, you can opt for FAFSA to register you with the Selective Service.

Financial aid applicants determine who receives their FAFSA form. You use the Department of Education school code list to designate which colleges receive you data. Each school has a unique school code assigned to it. Access to this list of codes is available to you within the FAFSA on the Web application. Failure to add your school's code will prevent the school from receiving your application. This is easily remedied by adding the school code at a later date. However, this takes time to process and will cause unnecessary delays. Remember to add your school codes at the time of application. Adding a school's code that you are only considering but not yet sure about applying to is a perfectly acceptable practice.

The next double check you should perform on your FAFSA is the signature requirements. As a dependent student you and a parent must sign the FAFSA for the application to be valid. This is over looked more often than you'd think. Earlier posts discussed the value of requesting and having your Department of Education PIN at the time of the FAFSA application. PIN signatures are the most secure and error free method of signing the FAFSA. Alternately, print and sign and remember to MAIL a signature page as directed. Remember to go all the way to the signature confirmation page on the FAFSA on the Web. It's a good idea to print out a copy of the final page before closing the web browser.