by Nick Perez

Created on: April 29, 2008

Of all the financial aid forms high school, and college students, will fill out in the mid-winter and early spring months, the FAFSA (Free Application For Federal Student Aid) is the most prevalent. The FAFSA application is a federal document, created and processed by the U.S. Department of Education. Below is a breakdown of who should fill out a FAFSA, the process of filling out a FAFSA, and what happens once your FAFSA has been processed:

Who Should Fill Out a FAFSA?

Everyone who plans to attend a college or post-secondary educational institution that accepts the FAFSA. You can easily determine if the school you are looking to attend accepts the FAFSA by either going to the school's Office of Financial Aid website or calling the school (almost every college that has some form of a financial aid program will require the FAFSA, and if they don't, chances are you're attending a school that's going to offer you very little financial assistance). Beyond whether your school accepts the FAFSA, the only other qualifier is that you be a U.S. Citizen, a Permanent Resident or be an Eligible Non-Citizen (certain immigration status' qualify for this category. For a complete list, visit http://www.Fafsa.ed.gov). Everyone who meets these two criteria should apply. Many students and their parents do not file a FAFSA because they believe they make too much money for aid, but that may not be true. When the government processes your application, they look at a couple of different determinants; total monetary assets of the family, family size, number of family members attending college at the same time and the cost of the schools you are planning to attend all factor in to how much aid you may receive. You can't be sure of what you are entitled to unless you apply. Even if you only get a couple hundred dollars, its still more money than zero!

How Do You Fill Out the FAFSA?

There are two ways: on-line or mail-in paper application. In recent years the government has been pushing using the on-line form. It is faster, giving you results in a few days and the program is intuitive and helps filers recognize mistakes they may have over-looked on the paper form. It is also a secure government website, so you shouldn't worry about your sensitive information being at risk. To file a FAFSA on-line, you must go to http://www.Fafsa.ed.gov (People often go to a site called http://www.Fafsa.com, which is a legitimate site, but one that is run by a company which charges you to have them fill out

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