FAFSA Info Night - December 6

Our annual FAFSA information night is coming on on Tuesday, December 6th at 6:00 pm in the Auditorium. The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that is required in order to get financial aid for college. Seniors and their parent/guardians are strongly encouraged to attend if they plan to file for financial aid. Juniors and their parent/guardian are also strongly encouraged to attend because it is often too late to move assets around if you wait to learn about how the FAFSA works during the fall of senior year. Knowledge is power so come learn about this important form so you won't be scared of it!

FAFSA basics:

- The FAFSA is free. Never, ever, ever pay a website or company to submit this form on your behalf.
- The FAFSA is not a scholarship granter. All the FAFSA does is allow college Financial Aid offices to see your family's financial profile and what the government thinks your family can afford to pay toward college (aka the Estimated Family Contribution, EFC). Each school can interpret and award scholarships at their discretion using that same EFC from the FAFSA.
- The FAFSA should be filled out in January of a student's senior year. It is not yet available and won't be until January 1. Most schools need it submitted no later than February.
- The FAFSA must be filled out each year a student is requesting aid. Otherwise how would a school know that your family won the lottery or that a parent lost a job?
-Everyone should file a FAFSA, even if you think you won't get lots of aid. At most private schools a family income needs to be over $250,000 per year in order to be ineligible for need based aid. And even for families in that scenario, the FAFSA can at the very least help you to qualify for an interest free loan from the government which can be a nice way to spread out the cost. Plus, many schools require a FAFSA be filed even for merit aid.

See you December 6!

(ps the link above is a little 90s throwback that makes the cut for this post because of the iconic 'money dive' at 19 seconds, woo ooh!)