It’s hard to believe that it is almost that time of year again. Beginning January 1st, 2012 you will be able to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
This financial aid application will be used to qualify you for financial aid for the upcoming Fall semester in August 2012. Yes, it is 8 months in advance, and yes you should do it as soon as possible!
The Department of Education has recently released a sneak peak version of the 2012-2013 FAFSA Application. You cannot actually submit this worksheet, but you can begin working on the draft version today, so you will be fully prepared to submit the real document when it becomes available on January 1st.
Procrastinating on completing your FAFSA could mean the difference in thousands of dollars in college financial aid. For example, the FAFSA deadline for many colleges is February 15th. If you wait until January 1st to begin gathering the documents needed, you will likely miss out on this deadline. If you miss this deadline you will miss the priority date for your college’s scholarships and grants program and lose any potential financial aid you qualified for through your school.
Even though this worksheet is available, you do not want to submit a paper copy of the 2012-2013 FAFSA Worksheet. The electronic application at http://fafsa.gov will be available beginning January 1st, and that is where you should submit your application. Submitting a paper FASFA could take 5-6 weeks to even get to your school, whereas a FAFSA submitted on the web will take a maximum of 48 hours.
There is also a really neat tool that is new this year for the FAFSA called IRS data retrieval. If you have successfully submitted your IRS tax forms, then you can “retrieve” that data through the FAFSA form. When this data is retrieved it will automatically populate the FAFSA form so you do not have to compare line by line figures. This one change alone could save you hours in completing your FAFSA.
The Department of Education may not be perfect, but they are trying very hard to make the FAFSA completion process less of a barrier to applying for Financial Aid. The best way to be prepared is to know what to expect. Print out a copy of this 2012-2013 FAFSA worksheet, and look it over to know exactly what to expect when you sit down to complete your FAFSA in a few short weeks.
FAFSA. I don’t miss the years we were involved with FAFSA filling out.
Dr. Dean recently posted..Family Obligations: Hidden But Real!
@Dr. Dean — Yes, I know what you mean. It certainly is a huge barrier for many students and parents who simply don’t fill it out because of how difficult it is. Glad you are finished with that part of your life as well!
MoneyforCollegePro recently posted..Sneak Peak at the 2012 – 2013 FAFSA Application
The FAFSA is easier now than it was when I was in school, but thanks for the reminder of the other bit of paperwork I have to fill out after we get taxes done. :-p
shanendoah@The Dog Ate My Wallet recently posted..Give to Charity – for Free
@Shanendoah — They certainly have made some very good improvements to the FAFSA in recent years. Glad to help with the taxes reminder!
MoneyforCollegePro recently posted..Sneak Peak at the 2012 – 2013 FAFSA Application
I was glad to read that they are accepting (and encouraging) online applications. This is key and probably saves a lot of time, and in an ideal world, would save money in processing as well. But, since this is the government we’re talking about, probably not so much 🙂
Money Beagle recently posted..Money Beagle Has A New Look
@Money Beagle — I certainly think that the process is much easier, but you are right, I don’t know if it really saves us as taxpayers any money. I am sure the Dept. of ED had to spend a lot of money to beef up their IT staff to handle online applications. I am sure they found someway to stay over budget.
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