College Student Loan News and Info

For Best Results, File Your FAFSA Early

What do you do with the Christmas vacation during your senior year of high school? You first have Christmas with family and friends and then you go on a thorough hunt for all the paperwork you will need to fill out and file you FAFSA early – yes, even as early as January 1.

There are differing deadlines according to which state you live in as to when the FAFSA deadline is. However, waiting until the last minute to fill out this very important form is not a good idea. In fact filing it on January 1st first thing in the morning is preferable. If your form is in the first batch of FAFSAs received by the Department of Education for the year, you will have greater chances of receiving more in the way of federal grants and financial aid than will others who wait until their state’s deadline. Some of the grants and scholarships have limitations on how much money can be given in a particular year from that fund. In that case, if you are eligible and you have filed early, you get first chance at that money before it runs out.

Another hint that you might want to be aware of is that you need to apply for as many grants and scholarships as possible. They offer free money – you don’t have to pay them back. But you need to wait to begin those applications until after you have filed your FAFSA if you file it early. There is a very important reason for this. If you have already received scholarship money in your name, that money will be counted as student assets. Student assets are assessed at 20% which means that you will have more assets that will need to be reported on your FAFSA. If you wait until after you have filed the FAFSA, you will receive more in the way of grants through the Department of Education and then you can receive the other grant and scholarship money on top of what you are eligible for through the FAFSA. However, if you are going to wait until the deadline to file the FAFSA, you should go ahead and apply for scholarships and grants because available monies in those funds are given out on a first come, first served basis, as well.

Because of the rising costs of college education, most students and their families need to receive as much in grants, scholarships, and financial aid as possible. Therefore, file your FAFSA early and then begin to file for other monies as soon as possible. Your wallet will thank you as you are able to concentrate more on your studies with less out of pocket expenses.