Senior year is full of applications, college visits, and endless opportunities. But for many of us, the one final hurdle standing between this last year and college is a seven-page form that feels more like filing taxes than getting a ticket to college: the FAFSA.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, more commonly known as FAFSA, is one of the most important forms you can file. On the Federal Student Aid website, it states, “Completing and submitting the FAFSA is free and gives you access to the largest source of financial aid for school…States and colleges also use FAFSA information to award their own financial aid packages.” Even though FAFSA covers a lot of bases, there are still some things that they don’t tell you.
“One thing the FAFSA doesn’t directly tell you is just how expensive college can be. Even if you qualify for the full Pell Grant, that still does not cover all of your tuition,” College Possible Coach Hannah Kennedy said. “Other aspects such as housing, books, and parking add up,” she said. The cost of college is up, but the number of filers to the FAFSA is not.
The FAFSA opens in October, sometimes as early as mid-September, but many people don’t file because they don’t think they qualify, either because they don’t have good grades, think they make too much money, or think the form itself costs money. (It doesn’t—filing is always free at fafsa.gov.)
“One of the biggest misconceptions that I see [is] students not completing the FAFSA because they believe their families earn too much money or that only the highest-achieving students receive aid,” Counselor Elizabeth Dickson said, “both of which are inaccurate.”
“I almost missed the deadline because I was so confused,” senior Tristan Mattingly said, “My dad didn’t really know how to help.”
Ask any senior, and you can get a similar answer. Between the language, figuring out what documents to file, and what parents to add, it can feel overwhelming to many. One key term to know, however, is your Student Aid Index. This number is built on a range from -1500 to 999,999, and it describes how much financial need you have. Anything under a 0 qualifies for the federal Pell grant and other opportunities.
“Most families don’t have an extra $25,000 lying around each year for college,” Kennedy says, “Making sure you take advantage of all your opportunities, both scholarships and applying each for the max amount of aid, is vital to being able to afford college.”
Here’s the truth, though: the FAFSA is not meant to trip you up. It’s meant to help you open doors. Once you break down the confusion step by step, it turns the maze into a roadmap, one that leads to grants, scholarships, work-study programs, and federal loans. No matter what the story, financial aid is vital to getting yourself to college.
