Completing and submitting a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) is the single most important thing you can do to get financial aid for college or graduate school.
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The FAFSA® is a free online application for financial aid eligibility for college. It’s used by schools to put together your federal student aid package for one year of college. This package can include grants for college, work-study, federal student loans, and even state and school financial aid.
While financial aid is not the same as student loans, you must first complete the FAFSA® form to apply for a federal student loan. Completing the FAFSA® online is convenient—and it can make your financial aid search easier.
Grad students can also apply for aid with the FAFSA. Learn more about graduate financial aid.
Once you’re ready to begin the FAFSA®, keep these tips in mind:
Check out Nitro’s 2022-23 step-by-step FAFSA® guide to help you understand each FAFSA® question and provide accurate answers.
To file your FAFSA, first gather all of the documents you’ll need to reference:
When you apply for financial aid, you’ll provide personal demographic information, as well as financial information, such as your family’s federal income tax returns, W-2 forms, bank statements, and information on your family’s investments.
This financial information is used to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Your EFC is an index number that colleges use to determine how much federal financial aid you’re eligible to receive. Your EFC is calculated according to a formula established by law and the information from your FAFSA®.
Your eligibility for aid depends on your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), your year in school, your enrollment status, and the cost of attendance (COA) at the school you'll be attending. The COA is the estimated cost to attend for one academic year and, if you attend at least half time, can include tuition, books, supplies, transportation, room and board, and other education-related expenses.
October 1, 2022
Open date: The earliest you can file the FAFSA® for the 2023-2024 academic year.
June 30, 2023
The federal deadline for filing the 2022-2023 FAFSA®. States and colleges have their own FAFSA deadlines. Be sure to check the FAFSA® deadline for each college you’re applying to. You can check your state's deadline on the federal student aid website.
While it may seem like you're getting money from the FAFSA®, it's actually just a form and process to get federal student aid, not a student loan. If you receive federal student loans as part of your financial aid award, you would have to repay them.
Each year, the government sets aside around $150 billion in federal aid for college students. That aid consists of grants, scholarships, federal student loans, and work-study—and to qualify for that aid, students need to fill out the FAFSA® form.
Sallie Mae’s How America Pays for College 2022 report shows that 70% of families filled out the FAFSA® for academic year 2021-22. What’s the biggest reason for not filing? Among families who didn’t submit it, 36% think their income is too high to qualify for any aid. That couldn’t be further from the truth: nearly all families qualify for something! This means that nearly a third of families could be missing out on thousands of dollars in financial aid.
It’s not just federal aid we’re talking about. Schools use the FAFSA® to put together their financial aid packages and some states use it to determine eligibility for state aid. For Tennessee students, for example, the FAFSA® is used to determine their eligibility for the Tennessee Promise program, which provides two years of tuition-free attendance at a Tennessee community or technical college. There’s also the Tennessee HOPE Scholarship, which is funded from the net proceeds of the state lottery and awarded to entering freshmen who are enrolled at an eligible post-secondary institution.
It’s not. Yes, tax returns are used in the application, so income is important. But there are other variables, like how many dependents you have and how many of those dependents are in college. Regardless of your income, if you or your student is enrolled in a higher education institution, filling out the FAFSA® when it opens should be a priority every year
Oct. 1 should be considered a holiday in higher education—it marks the opening of the FAFSA® window for the next academic year. To be considered for federal student aid for the 2022-2023 academic year, make sure to fill out your FAFSA® on, or close to, Oct. 1, 2022. It’s especially important to complete the FAFSA® sooner rather than later because some aid is awarded on a first come, first served basis.
States and colleges have their own deadlines for applying for state and institutional financial aid. Visit your school’s website to find out their deadlines and visit the Federal Student Aid website to view specific state FAFSA® deadlines—especially if you’re applying to colleges in different states. If you’re a returning FAFSA® filer, you may remember your school and state deadlines, but make sure to double-check in case any timelines have changed.
Another FAFSA® myth is that you only have to fill it out once to be eligible for financial aid in college. Yes, you need to complete it as a high school senior, but you also have to file it again every year of college and even graduate school. Submitting a “Renewal FAFSA®” each year is the only way to remain eligible for federal student aid, and the amount of aid can vary year-over-year
Before you start the filing process, you’ll want to make sure you gather your and/or your student’s Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank statements, 2020 tax returns for the 2022- 2023 academic year, and W-2 forms. By having this information ready, you’ll be able to expedite the process. And the good news is, once you return to file the FAFSA® next year, most of this information will be saved.
Take your time filling out the FAFSA® and make sure the information you're entering is correct, too. Some of the most common FAFSA® mistakes include leaving parts of the application blank, entering the wrong Social Security or driver's license numbers, and completely forgetting to sign the application. It's crucial to pay attention to detail; you could jeopardize your potential financial aid if you make mistakes.
The good news is, there are free tools and resources to help, like this FAFSA® handbook. If you run into any roadblocks filling out the FAFSA®, don't hesitate to ask for help. You can also visit “FAFSA Help” on the Federal Student Aid website.
And last, but certainly not least, you should never pay to file the FAFSA®; it’s free on the federal student aid site and through the myStudentAid app. Be careful about sites phishing for your FAFSA® information. The first “F” in FAFSA® stands for “Free!”
Fact: Student and family income isn’t the only factor that the government uses to decide if a student qualifies for federal financial aid. The only way to know for sure if you’ll qualify is to fill out the FAFSA®.footnote 2
Fact: Savings might not be a major factor when a school decides if a student qualifies for Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans. There are allowances for savings and assets.footnote 3
Fact: Actually, the number of family members in college might have a favorable impact on your financial aid eligibility.footnote 4
Fact: Financial aid is available for part-time students. Talk to the financial aid offices of the colleges you’re interested in attending about aid for part-time students.footnote 5
