Preparing for the FAFSA
With the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, families will need to prepare for the FAFSA sooner than ever before. So, how should families prepare for the FAFSA?
With the changes to the FAFSA, preparation is less involved than it had been with the previous version of the form. While the former FAFSA often required families to provide tax estimates, that will no longer be the case. Instead, families will be able to use prior-year tax information to file the FAFSA. Additionally, a majority of families will qualify to use the Data Retrieval Tool to upload their tax information directly from the IRS.
Getting to know the FAFSA >>
While tax information makes up a significant portion of the FAFSA, there are other questions as well. A lot of these will be things that families know off the top of their head. However, there will be at least a bit of preparation involved, even with the new FAFSA.
Information that families will want to have readily available includes:
Social security numbers for students and parents (or other registration numbers for non-US citizens)
Dates of birth for students and parents
Recent bank and investment statements
Statements of untaxed income
An FSA ID for one parent and the student
The FAFSA will ask about your totals in savings, investments and untaxed income (if applicable). The FSA ID is something that can take a bit of time, but the good part about this is that you can use it for filing in future years. However, this also means that you'll want to keep the ID and passwords created on file.
Considering the FAFSA is available starting October 1, I would recommend that you start getting this information together, including the creation of the FSA IDs, in September.
There is a lot to be gained from our free general financial aid advice, but it’s also a very individual process. If you have remaining financial aid questions, email us to discuss more or book an individual session.