The Tennessee Promise, for example, offers all state residents two years of free tuition at a state community or technical college regardless of income, but it requires a FAFSA to make sure students maximize their federal aid first.
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Nerd note: Starting in 2016, the FAFSA will open three months earlier, and parents and students will be able to use their tax information from the previous year to fill it out. The CSS Profile may also be required or even an institutional form linked directly to a college/university website.
Misner said students also need to check with each college and university they’re interested in for possible money given out by the school. Don’t worry if you haven’t filed your taxes yet.
If you wait too long to do so, your child could miss out on scholarships or other awards like federal and state grants.
Misner will lead a workshop January 26 at the Henderson County Public Library’s main branch in Hendersonville to teach students and parents about financial aid opportunities, how to find scholarships and ways to make college affordable. Written by student financial aid experts, David Levy and Mark Kantrowitz, this book provides step-by-step instructions to completing the FAFSA, with extensive tips and advice about increasing the amount of aid eligibility, avoiding common errors and dealing with special circumstances. After you file your taxes, you’ll need to log back in to the FAFSA and correct any estimated information.
This is a new requirement for the 2016 FAFSA. Then, when you file your 2015 taxes, update your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Previously, colleges could see the full list, in preferential order, on a student’s FAFSA, and some may have used this to influence college admissions and financial aid decisions.
If you don’t have an FSA PIN already, you’ll have to start from scratch.
Certain information and documents are necessary to complete the FAFSA and it’s good to have them handy before you begin. “The worst situation is you didn’t get anything”.
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The U.S. Department of Education first changed its policy to keep FAFSA applicants’ college preferences from individual schools this year, and state agencies are expected to lose access next year when an additional change goes into effect for the 2017-18 enrollment cycle.
