Filing out the FAFSA

Hi Readers! To get things started, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what you will need to do to prepare to complete your FAFSA (Federal Application for Federal Student Aid). The new 2012-13 FAFSA is now available and can be found here: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. Before completing the FAFSA, you will need to complete the following steps:

a) “Register for a PIN.” This PIN will act as your electronic signature for your online financial aid applications. The PIN website is: www.pin.ed.gov. Please request that the PIN be emailed to you.

b) Complete the FAFSA for the 2012-13 award year. You will need to have your PIN and corresponding federal taxes for 2011 to complete the FAFSA on the web.

c) If you are a dependent student, your parent must also register for a PIN and fill out their portion of the FAFSA.

With the 2012-13 FAFSA, you will have the option of importing your tax information directly from the IRS. Please note that if you would like to use this option, you will need to wait at least two weeks in you filed electronically or eight weeks if you filed traditionally. Choosing this option will make it easier to ensure that you're not missing anything that could impact your eligibility. Next time, I will be back to discuss the dependency status questions.