If you are a parent of a senior applying to college or if you are a student returning to college in the fall of 2014, you will want to submit your financial aid forms to your college(s) this January or February in order to qualify for grants, scholarships and loans.
The two financial aid forms most commonly used are the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, which is the federal form that all colleges use to determine aid eligibility, and the College Scholarship Service Profile or CSS PROFILE that is used by many private colleges. Both forms are available now and the links can be found below.
Even if you are unsure if you would qualify for aid, you should go ahead and apply anyway, especially if you think you might want access to federally funded loans to supplement the costs of college. You will find a link below to the Expected Family Contribution or EFC form, where you can plug in your own numbers to find out what the colleges will use to determine your need.
Even the most financially sound colleges have limits on how many grants and scholarships they might offer their students each year. And filing your forms by the required deadlines is very important if you want to maximize the amount of money a college might offer you.
Check with each of your colleges if you haven’t already done so to find out what their exact deadlines are for submitting your forms and which forms they require.
Best of luck!
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
College Scholarships Service Financial Aid PROFILE (CSS PROFILE)
