Free Application for Federal Student Aid –by Jennifer Haughie
Hello, my name is Dr. Jennifer Haughie, Dean of Enrollment Management at the Community College of Baltimore County.
After working in higher education for over 15 year, I have witnessed the increasing costs of attending college.
Paying for college can seem like an intimidating venture, but luckily there are resources available which can help.
No matter where you might find yourself on your educational path, the federal government can potentially offer assistance to help pay for higher education.
Today, we will talk about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
The FAFSA application is your first step toward applying for and receiving federal, state, and institutional assistance to help finance your education.
The FAFSA application may seem intimidating at first, but it is far less complicated than it initially appears.
After watching this video, you will be prepared to file a FAFSA - including how you complete the application itself, and what you should do to follow up after you have finished the FAFSA.
Additionally, you will be confident in your ability to successfully navigate the FAFSA portal to receive financial assistance for your education. So let’s begin.
The FAFSA is an application submitted online and used by institutions of higher education nationwide to gather information about you and your household in order to determine what kinds of financial aid you qualify for.
It is your first step in applying for loans, grants, and work-study, which are all awarded to students on the basis of financial need.
Your financial need is determined from the information you include on the FAFSA application to calculate a number called your EFC, or Expected Family Contribution.
The formula used to calculate your EFC was designed by the federal government, and thus your EFC will not change regardless of what school you attend or where that school is located.
However, the type of aid you can receive may differ from school to school based on the EFC.
One FAFSA application applies to one ACADEMIC Year, as opposed to calendar year.
An Academic Year begins in the Fall semester and includes the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer semesters, with a new Academic Year beginning the following Fall.
This means that after filing your initial FAFSA application, you will need to renew the application in all subsequent Academic Years that you will continue your education.
You can begin filing a new or renewal FAFSA every year beginning on January 1st for the upcoming Academic Year.
You are always encouraged to file your FAFSA as early as possible, preferably before the end of January, as some financial aid is offered on a first-come-first-serve basis.
However, if you are late in filing the FAFSA, don’t be discouraged; you may still be able to qualify for some kind of aid.
So mark your calendars now and make sure you are applying for or renewing your FAFSA application every January until you have achieved your educational goals!
Before you dive into the FAFSA itself, you want to make sure you have everything prepared in advance to make the process as smooth as possible.
Your first step will be determining your dependency status.
Generally, high school students will be considered dependent, but If you have a unique circumstance that you think would qualify you as an independent student, please contact your school’s Financial Aid Office to discuss this.
Otherwise, be prepared to work with a parent or guardian to complete the FAFSA.
Your next step is applying for a Personal Identification Number, or PIN, which is used to sign your FAFSA electronically.
If you are a dependent student, you will want to make sure that both you and your parent or guardian have applied for unique PINs.
This is done online at Make sure to write your PIN numbers down and keep them in a safe place – you will use the same numbers throughout your educational career.
After you have applied for the necessary PINs, you will want to evaluate your federal tax return status.
The FAFSA application will ask you questions pertaining to your tax information as well as your parents’ or guardians’ federal income tax returns or 1040’s, from the previous CALENDAR year.
Make sure to have all tax information ready including both yours and your parents’ or guardians’ W-2’s and 1040’s from the previous year.
You will also need your most recent bank statements, and information on additional assets such as a 2nd home, stocks, etc.
If you have additional assets be prepared with documentation of how much those assets are currently worth, and any debt associated with those assets (for example, the amount still owed on a mortgage for a 2nd home).
If you or your parents’ or guardians’ either paid or received child support during the previous calendar year, you will also want to know the total amounts in advance.
You can file a FAFSA from any place that you have a computer and internet access.
To complete or renew your FAFSA, go online to
Keep in mind that the first F in FAFSA stands for FREE, so if you find yourself at any time being charged or asked for money, you have gone to the wrong web address.
The FAFSA will ask you for personal and income information, and then for your parents’ or guardians’ personal and income information, as well as information about the household.
Much of the income information asked about on the FAFSA can be retrieved from specific lines of you or your parents’ or guardians’ federal 1040 form.
The easiest way to do this is to use the available IRS data retrieval tool, which I would greatly encourage you to use, if possible.
If you qualify, you can use the IRS data retrieval tool to automatically link your FAFSA to your IRS records and populate your FAFSA with that data.
Not everyone will qualify to use the IRS data retrieval tool, so if you are unable to use this, please refer to your paper copies of the federal 1040 for the requested information.
Each question of the FAFSA will list a specific line from the 1040 where this information can be found.
Enter the correct information on each of the referenced lines.
If you have not yet filed or will not file taxes, there will be a question on the FAFSA that asks your tax filing status, and you want to select the appropriate answer as either “I will file” or “I’m not going to file” as applicable.
You can then use your W-2s, your previous year’s tax returns, and your best estimates to complete the FAFSA.
There is also an “income estimator” tool to assist you with this.
If you will be filing a tax return in the future, remember to return to when this has been done to update any information that turned out to be different from your original estimates.
Your application will be saved for future edits or updates.
You will be able to send your FAFSA information to up to 10 schools.
This is in case you are unsure of what school you will be attending during the upcoming academic year.
You can select potential schools from the provided list, or you can enter in the school’s unique six digit Title IV School Code, if you know it.
This code can likely be found on the school’s website.
You will also use the PIN numbers to electronically sign the FAFSA to certify that all of the included information is correct.
Remember that both you and at least one of your parents’ or guardians’ will need to sign.
After you have completed and submitted your FAFSA online, you will receive back what is called a Student Aid Report, or SAR.
The SAR is a summary of all the information you included on your FAFSA. Read the SAR carefully to check for errors, questions you may have inadvertently skipped, or missing signatures.
Pay close attention to the “Comments” section of the SAR, as this will alert you to any action required at that time, or any obvious mistakes that you should correct.
It will take the US Department of Education several business days to process your FAFSA application, but after that period has passed, you may choose to contact the institution of higher education’s Financial Aid Office to verify that they have received your application.
Once the institution of higher education has received your information, the school’s Financial Aid Office should be able to provide additional information about what aid you may qualify for.
Do keep in mind that you may be asked to submit additional documents in order to verify the accuracy of your FAFSA; financial aid offices have been empowered by the federal government to do this, and are able to withhold any and all financial aid until all required documents have been submitted to their satisfaction.
Now that you have a better grasp on what to expect from the FAFSA application, and how to prepare in advance, the process of applying for financial aid should be a smooth one for you.
If you do encounter any difficulties or have questions about the process, please know that free assistance is available to you online, and also through your school’s Financial Aid Office.
Remember that no matter how difficult paying for your education may seem, there are resources available to you which can help make the process as easy as possible.
Best of luck in all your educational endeavors!