Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is something all seniors are coming into contact with this year. It is a great way to help get money for college. Applications for FAFSA are to be submitted online on the website https://fafsa.ed.gov/ by March 2nd. It is recommended to fill out this application whether students are going to a community college, a four year university, or thought to be ineligible. Any amount of money for school can be helpful. School beyond high school can be expensive and FAFSA can help lighten the financial load.

In order to apply, the applicants must:

• Be a US citizen, US national, or an eligible non-citizen
• Have a valid social security number (SSN)
• Have no federal debts

In order to successfully fill out the application there are documents or information that will need to be at an applicant’s reach . The most obvious documents are your social security number and personal information. In the case of dependent students, your parent’s social security numbers and year they got married. Dependent students need to input their parent’s tax forms. If your parents haven’t filed their taxes for the most recent year then input the previous year’s tax information. FAFSA can be amended later, but it must be submitted on time. The information could also then be linked to the tax information when already processed for the most recent year.

When filling out the FAFSA Application, the program will ask for a pin in order to sign and submit the application. Both the student and parent are going to need a pin number. There will be a link on the log-in page in order to get the pin number. For those who already have a sibling who filled out a FAFSA form may already have a pin prepared for the parents. The pin will be the same.

FAFSA helps the colleges decide how much money they can grant and loan a student. Once the FAFSA is submitted, an application for the CAL Grant can be submitted. For more information, students can talk to Ms. Kronstadt for any further questions or options.