Scholarship and Grants 101: The FAFSA

When dealing with college scholarships and grants, one document is key. The FAFSA. I know you have heard about it, but you probably don't fully understand it.

FAFSA stands for Free Application For Financial Student Aid.

Basically the FAFSA is a form the student and his/her parents/guardians fill out in order to determine how much a family is expected to contribute to the cost of a pos tsecondary institution; basically college.

FAFSA results also determine eligiability for grants, work-study, and federal loan amounts. The The FAFSA is critical because it is used for the Federall Pell Grant-and boy do I love this grant. Thanks to the Pell Grant I get approx. 4500 a semester of my college tuition payed for.

It is very important to fill this form out with your parents or gaurdians accurately and on time. If information is not accurate you can loose all elgiability for recieving any type of aid from the government.

Some basic information requested by the FAFSA includes:

• Information about the student
• Information about the student’s dependency status
• Information about the student’s parents
• Information about the student’s finances
• A list of the schools that should receive the results of the FAFSA

You can find the FAFSA online here.