Is filing FAFSA in Junior year too early ?

Question

in one week my Junior Year of High school will be officially over. Should I start filling out FAFSA? I will start applying to colleges in the fall of my senior year (after this summer's over.)

How do colleges use fafsa? Besides the Federal aid that I might get, if it can not cover everything (and Im sure it will not), can a university cover the rest if you are immensly poor?

I dont understand what will be the correct order of doing things. Should I file FAFSA first ? or do I have to file college fin aid papers earlier than the application itself or together with the application ? I am a little confused. Coud someone help me out ?

thank you

Answer 1

all the answers are correct.  You need to wait to fill out your fafsa until after Jan of your senior year in high school.  However you might consider doing the fafsa4caster.  This is a dept of ed website specifically for juniors who want to begin early and know what to expect with financial aid.

Good luck and good for you!!!

http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/

Answer 2

Do not file the FAFSA until the January of your senior year.  If you want to do one (just for kicks) before that, try the EFC estimator calculators at www.finaid.org.  That will give you some idea of your eligibility, but won't confuse the Financial Aid Office by actually applying a year early.

If you will enter college in the fall of 2009, then the FAFSA will be based on your (and your parents') 2008 income.

Financial Aid applications and admissions applications both need to be done, but the order generally doesn't matter.  Most schools don't care if the Financial aid application comes in first, or the Admissions application comes in first.  There are some schools that have very early deadlines, though, so check all the deadline dates for each school you are considering very carefully.

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

No. Do not file now. You need to file as soon as possible after January 1st 2009. You will be using the tax information of this year (2008).

Your FAFSA determines your EFC which is how much your family can contribute. Your EFC is then subtracted from your school's tuition. If you have an EFC of 500 and your tuition cost is $6000 then you may get around $5500 from aid, grants, scholarships, etc. but will be expected to pay at least (but probably more than) $500.

The lower your EFC the more money you will get however you probably will not get a free ride. My EFC is 0 but I still have about $4000 left to pay.

This fall start applying to schools and scholarships. In January or as soon as possible AFTER January apply for FAFSA. You will need your parents' tax documents so tell them to get it all done ASAP for you. Keep applying to scholarships. It takes a couple months for your FAFSA to be determined and sent out to your colleges so don't fret if you don't get any immediate answers.

Answer 4

Yes...the info is only good for a year or the summer 08 til spring 09...but it's not a bad idea, most people info don't change so you will know early approximately what you will be getting...also you can send you the info to any college you are interested and change accordingly