Can anyone help me with my FAFSA?

Question

I need to apply for financial aid and some websites ask for money some are free. Are they all safe websites or am i looking at the wrong ones? Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Excellent question.

You should never PAY for assistance with financial aid, especially if you're talking about the federal financial aid program.

FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid - the name alone should tell you that you shouldn't be paying to complete it.

As you've correctly guessed, there are many crooks and charlatans out there who are trying to take advantage of students who are new to the financial aid system. They use look-alike web addresses and official sounding names to try to confuse people.

The government's FAFSA site is located at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ - notice that .gov extension at the end of the web address - that's your sign that this is an official US government website. No one else can use an address with a .gov at the end.

You may have noticed a look-alike site called fafsa.com - do you honestly think those folks aren't trying to capitalize on confusion?

The FAFSA is free to fill out - do it on the government's site, because you're not going to need to pay anyone to help you. You'll need this year's tax return, your W-2 statement, and information about the value of any assets you own - things like the balance in your savings and checking account, the value of any stocks or bonds that you own, etc. The instructions to the FAFSA will take you exactly what things you should gather togetehr before you start filling it out.

You will complete a FAFSA for every year that you apply for financial aid. Once you have completed your initial application, you won't have to start over from scratch in subsequent years - you can simply go back and update this year's FAFSA. That's another thing that look-alike companies try to get you to pay for. Don't fall for it.

There are semi-legitimate companies out there that will help you find scholarship funds - they charge a fee. No one can guarantee you a scholarship, so all these companies really do is mail you lists of scholarships you might be qualified for. The reality is that you can find all of these yourself, so you have to ask whether having someone sell you canned lists of scholarships is worth the time it would save you if you had to look on your own. Generally, the answer is no.

You asked an excellent question - do not spend a dime to complete the FAFSA, and don't fall for any of those schemes. Those companies have no shame - they're laughing all the way to the bank.