It's FAFSA season! The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. All college-bound seniors and continuing college students can file for federal and state financial aid by completing a form at http://www.fafsa.gov/ . This simple form requires information from both the parent and student 2010 income tax returns.
Financial aid is based on a student's "need" for funding. The methodology includes the parent and student adjusted gross income, size of the family and cost of attendance. This information is processed to determine the family contribution. The difference between the cost of attedance and the family contriution equals what the government believes to be the student's "need."
Many times parents neglect to file a FAFSA thinking that their income will be too high to qualify for financial aid. While income is indeed part of the formula, I always recommend that everyone file a FAFSA for two reasons. First of all - Don't disqualify yourself! You never know what program might be on the horizon that you might qualify for. Secondly - We all know how quickly things can change. Even if you have plenty of income right now, recent economic tribulation has made us all aware that things can change overnight.
While no one wants to enter college planning to go into debt, the reality is that most students borrow some money to complete a college degree. The FAFSA opens the gateway to federally subidized student loans, which can offer no interest (or low interest) or repayment until after leaving college.
The FAFSA is a simple form that can change the life of a student. Deadlines vary at many colleges, and at Rocklin High February is a very short month. I recommend all students make Valentine' Day their filing deadline. Afterall - we all love money - and that's what the FAFSA is all about - maximizing your money for college.
A final note of caution. At the birth of the internet a creative entrepreneur purchased fafsa.com . This site clones the official http://www.fafsa.gov/, but when you get ready to submit the site requests about $100 to file a free form. Remember the first word in FAFSA is FREE. File at http://www.fafsa.gov/!
