How to Fill Out The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and Receive Money For College

After looking over some of the responses I have received, it appears that there is some confusion about completing a state FAFSA application.

HEY, the FAFSA is a federal program. This means that there is no state application form to fill out.

There is only one form to complete.

There is no Texas, Ohio, California and on-and-on form to complete.

There is only one form to complete and all the links you need are right here in front of you on this page. So take advantage of the work we have done and read this page completely and thoroughly.

Download the StudentGuide.pdf to get started!

After you have completed the online form, the college you have been accepted by and plan to attend will receive a copy of the completed FAFSA and that college or university will administer the federal aid and tailor your financial aid package based upon what you can qualify for in the form of student loans, grants and work-study.

Before You Get Started Filling Out Your FAFSA You Need This Document:
http://www.collegeforkatie.com/StudentGuide.pdf


After You Have Completely Read The FAFSA Student Guide, You Need To Get Your FAFSA PIN Here:

http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp

To Complete The FAFSA You Need All This!

Social Security Number. (Be sure it is correct because that's how you get paid at the college you attend.)

Driver's License (if any)

2007 W-2 Forms and other records of money earned

You (and your spouse´s, if you are married) 2007 Federal Income Tax Return.

* IRS 1040, 1040A, 1040 EZ
* Foreign Tax Return, or
* Tax return for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federal States of Micronesia, or Palau

Parents´ 2007 Federal Income Tax return (if you are a dependent student)

2007 untaxed income records

* Social Security
* Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
* Welfare
* Veterans benefits records

All Current bank statements

Your or Parents current business and investment mortgage information, business and farm records, stock, bond and other investment records

Your alien registration or permanent resident card (if you are not a U.S. citizen

Then, You Can Complete Your FAFSA WorkSheet Here:

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before012.htm

Visit
http://www.court-record.info to Find Out How You Can Get Your FREE Background Check!

If you have a child who will be attending college, or if you are considering going back to college yourself, there is one document that you must consider filling out - the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The FAFSA is the most important document in determining eligibility requirements for public financial aid money and it is used by many colleges and universities in determining eligibility for private scholarship and grant dollars as well.

We've created a video on filling out the FAFSA at www.collegeforkatie.com But, before you jump into the video, there are some key pieces of information about the FAFSA you should know before you try to fill it out. This article summarizes many questions and answers you may have about the FAFSA.

The FAFSA is the key to unlocking federal financial aid dollars - over $30 billion in new federal aid in 2005-2006 alone. The FAFSA program is managed by the United States Department of Education, or the Dept. of Ed. The FAFSA is used by the Dept of Ed to determine whether a student, based on the family's income, is eligible for federal grants or federal loans. In addition to being used by the Federal government, most states and many institutions also use the data collected on the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their own grant, loan, and scholarship programs as well.

The FAFSA is a long document that is now completed, almost entirely online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. While paper copies are still available, the online FAFSA is your best option for several reasons. First of all, the online FAFSA allows for the fastest and easiest processing of your information. When you complete the FAFSA online you'll have many opportunities to review your work to make sure it is accurate. If you use the paper document, you have to make sure it's right, mail it in to the Dept of Ed, someone hand enters it into a computer, and then you have to wait until your Student Air Report, or SAR, is returned to check for any errors. With the online FAFSA you receive the SAR electronically within one to five days - about half the time it takes with the mailed FAFSA. And if you complete online and find an error in the SAR, you can quickly and easily correct it online as well. (You can find the complete article at CollegeForKatie.com/articles.html)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss1 - Reuters

January 7, 2008

Yale University, flush with cash from strong investment returns, said on Monday it would spend roughly 37 percent more of its own money on financial aid for students and scientific research in 2008-2009.

The Ivy League school said it plans to pay out $1.15 billion of its $22.5 billion endowment in the next fiscal year after the endowment grew 28 percent in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. New Haven, Connecticut-based Yale expects to spend $843 million from its endowment in the current fiscal year.

The school also said it will "increase dramatically" the financial aid it awards to undergraduate students, but declined to give details before an announcement it plans to make later this month.

Monday's news comes at a time U.S. lawmakers are urging wealthy universities to make tuition more affordable and roughly one month after Harvard University said it would spend an additional $22 million of its $35 billion endowment to cut tuition costs for middle and upper middle class families.

Harvard and Yale are America's two richest universities and their investment returns have long beaten the Standard & Poor's 500 index returns. Yale earned 28 percent and Harvard 24 percent in the last fiscal year 2006-07. The S&P 500 returned 18 percent in fiscal 2006.

Only July 11, 2007, the U. S. Congress voted to increase spending on education. Specifically, a gradual increase in Pell Grants will be phased in starting on October 1, 2007.

This is great news for college students! When you consider that the average cost of a university degree is upwards of $40,000 per year, while the average graduating salary is a dismal $25,000. Add the cost of living, food, clothing, transportation, and all those taxes, local, state and federal. It could easily take over ten years to pay back those loans. I say Bravo!




Here are the excerpts if you wish to learn more:

UPenn to eliminate student loans by 2009
Posted Monday, December 17, 2007 at 11:38 am
PHILADELPHIA Officials at the University of Pennsylvania say they'll begin giving loan-free financial aid packages to eligible undergraduates starting in the fall of 2009.

Penn will phase in the changes next fall by eliminating loans for students with family incomes under $100,000.

At the same time, the Ivy League school will reduce need-based loans by 10 percent for students whose families make more than $100,000.

Penn costs about $46,000 a year for tuition and room and board.

Monday's announcement continues a trend among elite private colleges to replace loans with grants in financial aid packages. Harvard University and Swarthmore College announced similar policies this month.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1288




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Published in the Columbia Spectator (http://www.columbiaspectator.com)
Following Princeton, Schools Switch to Grants
By Keren Daskin
Created 11/26/2007

Since Princeton's 2001 debut as the first private university to eliminate loans in favor of grants, many institutions have followed suit.
Although no other Ivy university has replicated Princeton's move to completely eliminate loans in place of grants, in 2006, Columbia replaced loans with grants for families earning under $50,000 per year. Similar policies were enacted in 2005 by Dartmouth and University of Pennsylvania, which eliminated loans for families whose household income was less than $30,000 and $50,000, respectively.
With a current trend in independent colleges and universities transitioning from loans to grants for students whose annual household income is below $50,000, Wesleyan University is the most recent institution to jump on the financial aid bandwagon.

Source URL:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/28295



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Duke University Joins Aid Boost Rush

By JUSTIN POPE - Dec 8, 2007

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Duke University on Saturday became the latest elite college to announce a major boost in financial aid. But like even some of its wealthiest peers, it isn't going so far as to guarantee all its students will graduate debt-free.

Instead, Duke - which has a list price of more than $45,000 per year - said it would stop requiring any parental contributions from families earning under $60,000. Students from families earning less than $40,000 will get a full ride, without being asked to take out any loans.

But while better-off students won't have to borrow as much as before, Duke will still ask them to take out some loans. That differs from new policies announced by a handful of prominent colleges recently, including Princeton, Davidson, Amherst and Williams - all of which have replaced loans entirely with grants that don't have to be repaid.

Duke says even with a $5.9 billion endowment, it doesn't have as much to spend per student on financial aid as the schools that have eliminated loans. But even some schools with much bigger endowments than Duke, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, still ask students to borrow. They argue a degree from an elite school is worth so much over a graduate's lifetime that a small loan is a reasonable investment to require.

At Yale and Stanford, parents earning under $45,000 pay nothing, while at Harvard the threshold is $60,000.

About 40 percent of undergraduates receive aid at Duke, which said total aid spending would rise 17 percent next year to $86 million.

http://www.duke.edu

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