How to Fill Out Your FAFSA Application Online

FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In order to qualify for student financial aid at the federal level the FAFSA must be filled out by each student annually. Many states also use the FAFSA in the determination of non-federal aid need for students.

Filling Out Your FAFSA Application Online

The federal government makes it easy for anyone to fill out their FAFSA online. In order to do so the student or their parents must visit the official FAFSA web site, found at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov

Filling out your FAFSA application involves entering personal information, as well as information on your income and/or parents' income, so that the government can best determine your needs for financial aid. Determinations from the FAFSA include how much aid you are eligible to receive as well as types of financial aid that you may receive.

Information You Need When Filling Out Your FAFSA

Before you begin filling out your FAFSA you will need several important pieces of information. These include:

Your social security number
Your driver's license number (if you have one)
Any tax information for the previous year's taxes
Your parents' tax returns for the previous year (if you are registering as a dependent)
Information on current bank account status
Documentation forms if you are a resident alien

You will also need to know what schools you are applying to or are attending, so that the government can send information on your financial aid status to these institutions. Schools are registered in the FAFSA by a special code number that can be found through the FAFSA web site.

Having the information ready before hand is obviously not a requirement, however the more information you have on hand when filling out your application, the faster it will go. My first time filling out the FAFSA I thought I could just jump right in, but ended up spending a weekend going through all of the relevant documents before I could finally fill out the application. (I'm a notoriously unorganized person).

Signing Your FAFSA Application

In order to ensure that all information provided in the FAFSA is accurate and supplied by you, the federal government requires that all FAFSA applications be signed by the applicant. There are currently two methods of signing your FAFSA application when you fill it out online:

#1: Mail in a signed FAFSA application page. The FAFSA web site provides a printable document that the student can sign and mail in to the government.

#2: Use an electronic PIN to sign your FAFSA. The PIN (Personal Identification Number) is provided by the United States Department of Education and can be used to access your records online as well as for electronically signing your FAFSA. To apply for a PIN you can visit the DOE's PIN web site at http://www.pin.ed.gov

Filling Out the Application

Once you have all the information required and have received your PIN (or decided to mail in a signature page), you are ready to fill out your FAFSA. The FAFSA is a relatively simple and straight forward application that requests personal information to confirm your identity as well as income information to determine your financial aid needs.

If you are prepared, filling out the FAFSA application should take no more than an hour. If you are simply renewing your previous year's FAFSA the time runs much shorter.

If you are signing your FAFSA with a mailed in signature page it generally takes about 7-10 days to confirm before your application is processed. For electronic PIN signatures confirmation is generally done within 1-3 days, greatly shortening total processing time.

Once you have completed your FAFSA you are able to go in and edit any information for 45 days after opening the application or at the deadline for sending in your FAFSA application, whichever comes first.

Important Deadlines

In order for your FAFSA application to be processed for any upcoming school year, you must make sure that your application is sent in before the deadline. For the 2006-07 school year deadline dates are as follows:

July 2nd, 2007 for the submission of the FAFSA
September 17th, 2007 for corrections to the FAFSA

Note that these deadlines are only for the FAFSA itself. States have their own deadlines for financial aid applications, and most likely your university or college will have deadlines far sooner than this in order to qualify for financial aid. You want your application to be sent in as soon as possible in order to gain the most from financial aid.

My first time filling out the FAFSA I came in too late to qualify for Fall Semester financial aid, and had to wait for Spring Semester before I could receive any money. You do not want this to happen to you, so check with your state and your school's financial aid deadlines to make sure that you get your FAFSA sent in before these deadlines.

All in all the filling out of your FAFSA application is a quick and easy process. Once your information is already in the system, renewing it each year is a snap. While deadlines do extend fairly late, it is always best to have your information in as soon as possible.