How Submitting the FAFSA Early Can Snag You Extra Assist

Let’s be actual: Filling out the FAFSA (Free Software for Federal Scholar Assist) is not anybody’s concept of a great time. It’s lengthy and boring — effectively, boring till you understand it’s your greatest shot at getting free cash to assist pay for school.

However a number of college students don’t fill out the FAFSA or achieve this late within the recreation as a result of they wrongly imagine they gained’t qualify for assist or gained’t qualify for sufficient to make it value it. However making use of late (or by no means) might price you much more than most college students understand.

Discover out why you must fill out your FAFSA as near its Oct. 1 opening date. And when you need assistance doing so, we’ve bought sources for that too.

Table of Contents

Why is FAFSA so essential?

First issues first: For anybody even contemplating attending school, the FAFSA is among the most essential steps within the course of. If you happen to don’t fill out the FAFSA, you are taking your self out of the operating for many sorts of pupil assist, together with:

Federal grants together with the Pell Grant and Federal Supplemental Instructional Alternative Grants (FSEOG) (need-based assist)
Sponsored federal pupil loans (need-based)
Unsubsidized federal pupil loans (most college students qualify for these no matter want)
Federal work-study advantages
Some state-based monetary assist, together with grants, scholarships, and loans
Some school-based monetary assist, together with need-based grants and scholarships
Some school-based advantage assist, since many colleges require you file a FAFSA earlier than they’ll think about you

That’s … loads. In truth, except you’ve got a confirmed system for successful the lottery, it leaves you with only a few different assist choices in addition to personal scholarships. Whereas these are choices, you’re not assured of getting any. And even stellar college students are unlikely to win sufficient scholarships to cowl their complete price of going to varsity.

We wish everybody to get the faculty expertise they need at an inexpensive value, so a few of the knowledge from Sallie Mae’s most up-to-date How America Pays for College report was gorgeous.

Seems, most individuals don’t totally perceive why the FAFSA is essential, or the extent of advantages it provides to everybody. Lots of people suppose it’s just for lower-income households. That’s flat-out flawed. Nearly everybody qualifies for some assist by means of the FAFSA. As we noticed above, even some merit-based assist requires you to fill it out to be thought of.

The survey additionally discovered that 30% of faculty households didn’t even file the FAFSA. Of these, 36% didn’t as a result of they thought they made an excessive amount of to qualify. Lots of the different households both missed the deadline, discovered the method too burdensome, or did not learn about it.

Amongst households who did file the FAFSA, there’s nonetheless a number of misunderstanding of the way it works. Just one-quarter knew that the appliance opens in October, and roughly half didn’t understand that their state might have an earlier deadline for finishing it.

Put these particulars collectively and the image it paints is regarding. Too many households aren’t submitting, or they’re submitting later within the college yr than they should.

Why is submitting FAFSA later an issue?

You might be considering: I get it – I must file, and I plan to. However why does it matter when I file?

There are two foremost causes. First, when you wait too lengthy, you possibly can miss the deadline utterly. You’ve bought loads in your plate as you wrap up your highschool profession. It’s simple sufficient to miss one deadline out of the various you’re juggling. Nor do you wish to wait till the final minute solely to appreciate you forgot to collect data you want or your pc determined this was the right time to self-destruct.

Second, some sorts of funding are restricted or are distributed on a first-come, first-served foundation. If you happen to file the FAFSA too late, you possibly can simply miss out on assist that you’d have certified for however went to college students who filed sooner than you.

The flip aspect of that’s that the sooner you file, the extra doubtless you might be to get a much bigger slice of the monetary assist pie.

When and easy methods to file the FAFSA

In an ideal world, you’d fill out the FAFSA type the day it opens to the general public — Oct. 1. (Refined trace: That date’s arising quickly!)

Granted, that day may not be the very best day for you. However even when you can’t fill it out that day, shortly after it opens, you must, at minimal, take a peek at it to verify on a number of issues.

First, ensure you don’t have any technical points opening and utilizing the FAFSA. This isn’t widespread, however you don’t desire a last-minute technical concern in your aspect to maintain you from submitting one thing this essential. Nobody needs to lose a scholarship as a result of over a software program glitch.

Subsequent, undergo the appliance to verify what data you want. (We’ve bought a cheat sheet to assist.) Most of this data shouldn’t be arduous to search out (tax returns, earnings data, and so forth.), however you’ll want data out of your mother and father/guardians and stepparents, if relevant, so ensure you depart time sufficient for doc gathering.

If any of the questions look complicated, verify our information on finishing the FAFSA. It will possibly stroll you thru the shape to ensure you get it proper. (You may repair errors later if wanted however doing it proper the primary time is at all times simpler in fact.)

As soon as you are feeling assured you’ve got what you want, discover an hour when you don’t have anything else urgent to take action you may work by means of the appliance with out dashing. Placed on some tunes or a favourite podcast and get cracking. Consider it or not, when you get began, it’s not so unhealthy. And when you’ve completed, you may sit again and wait to see how a lot assist you get.

Discover extra funding choices with Nitro

Whereas the FAFSA is an important a part of your school schooling funding technique, it’s additionally true that for a lot of college students this assist gained’t cowl the complete price of attendance. Whilst you wait to your supply letter, think about trying out our sources on scholarships and pupil loans to assist bolster the funding you’ve got for school.