{"id":316,"date":"2022-09-08T13:53:30","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T13:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/?p=316"},"modified":"2022-10-27T14:12:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T19:12:49","slug":"fafsa-mistakes-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/fafsa-mistakes-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"FAFSA Mistakes To Avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every October 1st, the FAFSA onslaught begins. Articles and social media posts pop up about it, and unless your clients are on a vacation island somewhere with no internet, they&#8217;ve probably have seen something. We\u2019re going to add our two cents. We wanted to share some of the common FAFSA mistakes your clients need to avoid when filling it out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an aside, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/applying-for-financial-aid-fafsa-and-css-profile\/\">I\u2019m telling FAFSA<\/a>\u201d was even trending on Twitter!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m telling FAFSA y\u2019all buy Starbucks every day.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m telling FAFSA y\u2019all bought the new iPhone.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyway, back to the details&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What is the FAFSA? A quick summary<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parents of seniors (and returning college students) complete the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> every year. It is an online application used to determine a family\u2019s Expected Family Contribution or EFC. The EFC is determined based on a federal formula to measure your client\u2019s financial strength and ability to pay for college. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The phrase \u201cexpected family contribution\u201d is a little misleading. The EFC figure is not the amount a family is expected to pay each year. In reality, it is a number used by colleges to determine whether a student qualifies for need-based aid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FAFSA is the tool used to collect all the parent and student financial and demographic data to make this calculation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take advantage of these deeper dives into the FAFSA and EFC:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/elizabethb.wpengine.com\/college-financial-aid-7-efc-myths-debunked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7 EFC Myths Debunked<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/elizabethb.wpengine.com\/quirks-of-the-financial-aid-application-answers-to-some-fafsa-faq\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Answers to Some FAFSA FAQ<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/creating-using-fsaid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FSA ID instructions<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>9 Common FAFSA Mistakes<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>1)<\/b> <b>Not filling it out!<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each year, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.savingforcollege.com\/article\/millions-of-students-still-fail-to-file-the-fafsa-each-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">millions of students who would have qualified for college grants still fail to file the FAFSA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d Even if your clients think they won\u2019t qualify for need-based aid, still fill it out. A completed FAFSA is required for federal student loans. It is also used by states, colleges, and some private scholarship providers. In addition, your client\u2019s financial status may change mid-year due to job loss or health issues. Having an original FAFSA on file helps when contacting the financial aid office for a review mid-term.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>2)<\/b> <b>Waiting too long<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pot of money at most colleges is limited. Once it is gone, it is gone. First come, first served.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>3)<\/b> <b>Not knowing deadlines<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FAFSA has federal, state, and college filing deadlines. For the 2019\/2020 student term, the federal deadline is June 30, 2020, and the state of Ohio deadline is October 1, 2019. However, the college deadlines can be substantially earlier than these dates&#8211;February or March. But don\u2019t forget #2 above, the earlier the better so why wait?! (Not in Ohio? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/sa\/fafsa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and scroll down to search for each state\u2019s deadline.)<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>4)<\/b> <b>Not filling it out every year<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FAFSA completed by high school seniors who are starting college next fall are the most important. However, it is a good idea to file each year of a student\u2019s college career for many of the reasons given in #1 above.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>5)<\/b> <b>Paying someone to file on your behalf<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beware of scam companies out there who want to take advantage. The first word in FAFSA is \u201cfree.\u201d Your clients do not need to use a website that charges them for the service. Sites can be confusing so remember to always use <a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>6)<\/b> <b>Making mistakes on the form<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be sure to type the social security number correctly. Don\u2019t leave fields blank (use a 0 if needed). Be sure your clients understand the definitions of the terms like household size, marital status, etc. used on the FAFSA. Use the actual legal names for parents and students. Don\u2019t put parent numbers in student fields. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>7)<\/b> <b>Not using the Data Retrieval Tool<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your clients are eligible, take advantage of the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT). The DRT pulls the figures from your client&#8217;s 1040 tax return and plugs them into the correct fields on the FAFSA for them. Doing this will avoid entry mistakes or misunderstanding which numbers go where.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>8)<\/b> <b>Forgetting to include all the colleges the student is applying to<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unless a student is only applying to one school, include all the colleges on their list. The list does not impact any financial aid determinations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>9)<\/b> <b>And last but not least, forgetting to sign it!<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dependent students and their parents both need to sign the FAFSA with their <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FSA ID<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Just do it!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FAFSA is a detailed but not overly laborious process. The whole process from gathering the documents to filling it out online should take less than an hour. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.ed.gov\/sa\/fafsa\/filling-out#documents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click here for the documents you\u2019ll need.)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every October 1st, the FAFSA onslaught begins. Articles and social media posts pop up about it, and unless your clients are on a vacation island somewhere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[31,32,44,45,46,69],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/blog-img-1-600x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/blog-img-1-600x480.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Bill Rabbitt","author_link":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/author\/rabbs\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegeaidpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}