About the FAFSA
The FAFSA application is the application to be considered for virtually all types of federal, state, and college-sponsored financial aid, including grants, educational loans, and work-study programs. One must file the FAFSA application for every school year.
The FAFSA is the application used by virtually all colleges and universities to determine a student's financial aid eligibility using the Federal Methodology (FM) need analysis formula based on most recent year tax return information and other demographic and financial information.
Recent U.S. Department of Education figures indicate that a growing number of students are filing FAFSA applications to take advantage of low-interest student and parent loans, along with other forms of financial aid. As a worse-case scenario, students are eligible to receive at least the Federal Stafford/Direct student loan, provided the student:
is a US citizen or eligible non-citizen;
is enrolled at least half-time in a degree or certificate program;
is enrolled in a college or university that participates in the Federal Student Aid Programs;
has not defaulted on previous student loans;
agrees to verify income information, if requested; and
does not owe a repayment on a federal grant.
The Federal Stafford/Direct Loan is an excellent way to credit-finance all or part of your college education as virtually all students will be eligible, regardless of parents income, and there are no payments on the principal until six months after the student leaves school.
Note for FAFSA filers
Our FAFSA experts carefully monitor processing issues and problems with officials of the U.S. Department of Education and Pearson NCS, the government's primary FAFSA contractor. You may check your FAFSA status online or call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1.800.433.3243.
The FAFSA on the Web consists of between 43-54 screens. Many students and parents, especially those with slow Internet access, may find it time-consuming and difficult to use.You may still apply for financial aid even if you missed your school's or state grant agency's deadline date or already paid your tuition. Check here if you're worried about paying your tuition charges on-time. And review our helpful page on financial aid deadline dates, including a list of financial aid deadline for state grant agencies.
We recommend that students and parents carefully evaluate financial aid and scholarship services. We are student aid experts with over 34 years of experience. Read more about us in our reference section.