Help With FAFSA

If you need to report parent information, here are some guidelines to help you:

• If your parents are married (not separated), both of your parents’ information must be included on the FAFSA form, regardless of whether your parents are of the same or opposite sex. If your parents didn’t file taxes jointly, then both of your parents are contributors. If your parents filed taxes jointly, only one parent is required to be a contributor and will report information for both parents.
• If your parents are not married to each other and live together, both of your parents are contributors, and their information must be included on the FAFSA form, regardless of whether your parents are of the same or opposite sex.
• If your parents are divorced, separated, or never married and don’t live together, the parent who provided more financial support during the last 12 months is the contributor and must provide their information. If both parents provided an exact equal amount of financial support or if they didn’t support you financially, the parent with the greater income and assets is the contributor and must provide their information.

To get federal financial aid from the FAFSA you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen
• Be enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a regular student in an eligible degree or certificate program
• Graduate and have a High School Diploma or GED
• Maintain satisfactory academic progress in college or career school
• Go to FederalStudentAid.gov to learn more about eligibility criteria.

Financial aid is money to supplement what you and your family can afford to pay for your education. It may be used for tuition, fees, books, supplies, room, meal plans, and other educational expenses.

The amount of aid you qualify for is calculated by subtracting your Student Aid Index (SAI) from the total Cost of Attendance (COA) including tuition, fees, housing, books, supplies, etc.

The application takes less than an hour to complete. Create your FSA-ID 3 days prior to starting the FAFSA. Students and contributors (parents or spouses) are required to have an FSA ID to complete and sign the form online.

The Federal Deadlines for the 2024-2025 FAFSA is June 30^th 2025. Any corrections must be submitted by Sept. 14, 2025. Schools may also have priority dates for submitting the FAFSA. Check with the financial aid office at the college or career school you plan to attend for their priority date, if applicable.

Because of the variation in college priority dates, it is highly recommended that you fill out the FAFSA as soon as you can to ensure that you do not miss out on available aid. E.g. Work-study programs may be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This guide is intended for college financial aid adminstrators and counselors who help students with the financial aid process — completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA*) form, veryfing information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA form.

View Guide

FAFSA Completion by High School and Public School District

Code of Federal Regulations

If your last name doesn’t fit in the allowed space, type in as much as you can and it will be accepted.

You are not required to register for the Selective Service on the FAFSA to be eligible for federal financial aid. Registering for the selective service does not influence your financial aid. Information for males between the ages of 18 and 26 on when to register, go to https://www.sss.gov/ for more information.

Beginning in the 2024-25 Award Year a parent contributor information can be automatically transferred into the FAFSA form. Providing consent and approval on the FAFSA from allows federal tax information to be automatically transferred into their student FAFSA. All participants must provide consent and approval even if they didn’t file a U.S. federal tax return or any tax return at all.

All contributors must create their own FSA ID. You must use your own email and phone number to create an FSA ID.

Completing the personal circumstances section of the FAFSA form will determine if you are considered a dependent or independent student. Parental information is required for dependent students. Unless otherwise noted, “parent” means your legal (biological and/or adoptive) parent. If you’re a dependent student, it doesn’t mean your parents are required to pay anything toward your education; this information is simply used to determine your maximum eligibility for federal student aid. To learn more about dependency status, go to: https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/dependency

If you, as a student, have a valid social security number but your parents do not, you are still eligible for federal student aid. However, starting with the new 2024–2025 FAFSA form, parents with no SSN will also need an FSA ID to be able to log into your FAFSA form and complete their section of the form. Parents with no SSN should not use their Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) as a SSN when creating their FSA ID. On the FAFSA form, there will be a question for the ITIN. If the IRS has tax information for the ITIN used on the FAFSA form, it will automatically insert tax information. If it cannot, parents can manually enter information on the form.

• The Dream. US
• Immigrant Legal Resource Center
• National Immigration Law Center
• Immigration Equality
• Scholarship Resources on the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund website

There is no income cut-off to qualify for federal student aid. Many factors, such as the size of your family, the cost of college you plan to attend, and your year in school, are considered. The only way to know your qualifications is to submit the FAFSA.

You don’t need to get a credit check for most federal student loans (except for Direct PLUS Loans). Also, you usually won’t need a cosigner to get a federal student loan.

While a high GPA will help a student get into a school and may help with academic scholarships, most federal student aid programs do not consider a student’s grades.

No, your age or ethnicity are not taken into consideration for federal financial aid.

Yes, your parents’ citizenship status is NOT a factor. Parents without Social Security numbers will skip the Social Security number question and will either need to later enter in their ITIN to automatically insert connected financial data, manually enter in financial data, or mail in their financial data.

If you get all of your documents and information ready beforehand, the FAFSA won’t take more than 30 minutes. See FAFSA Info Checklists

You can submit your FAFSA form before submitting any school applications. You’ll need to list at least one school on your FAFSA form, but try to add every school you’re considering. Some schools have early deadlines to apply for limited funds. You can add or delete schools on your FAFSA after you submit it.

The FAFSA uses prior years’ tax information. Learn more about tax deadlines and details on Prep for FAFSA. 

Yes! It’s super important to fill out a FAFSA form every year you are in school. Why? Because things can change. For instance, your school or state might create a new grant or scholarship, or the factors used to calculate your aid could change from one year to the next. Either way, if you don’t submit a new FAFSA form, you may not know.