College Planning Partners Blog

January marks the beginning of the FAFSA filing season for those seeking financial aid. The FAFSA -- that is, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid -- is the key to unlocking the door to the majority of student aid.

The financial aid process begins with a review of each applicant's Student Aid Report (SAR) generated by completing the FAFSA. This is true regardless of a family's financial need--even merit based awards comprised of institutional scholarships and departmental grants often require a FAFSA report for consideration.

Unfortunately, many families leave literally thousands of dollars of potential assistance on the table. They assume they make too much to qualify for financial aid and don't bother filing the FAFSA form at all.

Another common mistake that can also result in unnecessary expenses: filing your FAFSA through the wrong web site. It may seem obvious that a free form would be submitted using a free application process, but it's not uncommon to hear of parents who unwittingly paid to file the FREE Application for Federal Student Aid.

Don't make the same mistakes -- submit your FAFSA even if you think you may not qualify for need based aid. Be sure to start by accessing the FAFSA through the U.S. Department of Education's ONLY official Federal Student Aid site. You can find it at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Go to other sites--such as fafsa.com--and you could be paying $65-$100 per submission to file a form you could complete on your own for free. Considering the FAFSA needs to be submitted annually for each student and a typical family is sending 2 or more students to school, that's a potential $800-$1,000 needlessly out of your pocket!

Since federal student aid is awarded on a first come, first served basis, it's crucial to file to your FAFSA application as soon as possible after January 1st. If you haven't filed yours, you could be missing out.

For help regarding how to answer any of the 100-plus questions you'll encounter on the form, call our office at 312-283-1617 for some quick advice. We regularly help families--even those with household incomes over $100,000--find ways to reduce their out of pocket cost of college.

Better yet, join us for our free FAFSA teleseminar on Wednesday, February 2nd, where we'll review the "6 Most Common FAFSA Mistakes" and how to avoid them.

Visit www.MyCollegePlanningPartner.com for registration details.