The FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a scholarship for students. Every year, October 1 is marked as the start of the annual college financial aid application cycle. And, as the families start filling the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the next years. For which current and prospective college students can fill their application forms each year.
The Federal Government has around $150 Billion each year available for eligible candidates. However, the candidates must also apply for their fair share from the total amount accordingly.
The FAFSA is the form that the US department of education uses to find suitable candidates. The eligible candidate gets federal student loans, grants, and work-study funds from the US government itself. However each year, around 10 million students per year only get some kind of grant. This even includes the combined $30 Billion grants via the form itself. This is According to the Federal Student Aid, an office which is in the Education Department.
The college students must fill out their FAFSA each year than they’re eligible to get federal aid. But, for the students which are considered dependants (most of the UG students under 24 years of age), they need to submit their financial as well as their parent’s information. Submitting your FAFSA application on the open day increases your chances of receiving the scholarships as well as the grants. These scholarships and grants are included in the school’s aid packages.
For this year they’ll be using the tax information of the year 2020. To apply for the aid of a school that starts in 2022, you need to send your tax information. But only if you’re dependants which include most of the undergraduate students. Most have submitted their applications along with the tax information.
TOOL TO SIMPLIFY FAFSA APPLICATION
And this is all possible through the simple IRS Data Retrieval Tool which most of the applicants are using. This tool will automatically import your tax information directly into your FAFSA applications. This makes the process much easier and much quicker. However, in case of difficulties on how to fill out the FAFSA, you can learn it in a step-by-step process.
But, this year few big changes coming out in the FAFSA. In which many of the questions would be eliminated from the forms. These changes are still in pipelines, and the students won’t see them for quite a couple of years. According to Sallie Mae’s 2021 on how America pays for College study, it was found out that in the year 2020-21 around 56% used these scholarships to help pay the college fees.
Many of you might be unsure that you’d qualify for the aid. But still, you must fill the form as it’s very important. The aid is provided on the financial need basis after assessing the family background and the financial situation. And because this aid comes from a limited fund, apply early becomes very necessary.
There are four different types of grants available for the students by the government. The grants are the funds that the Federal government gives to students which they didn’t need to pay back. Now these grants include:
Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant: It is eligible only for the students who are at an undergraduate or graduate school to be a teacher.
Federal Pell Grant
Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant: This is eligible for the students whose parent or guardian died in the events of 9/11 as an outcome of service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.
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The Federal government provides different kinds of scholarships and aids to the students each year. Some of which might be in contrast to money which later needs to be given back. However, there’s a maximum amount that a student can ask from the Federal banks. In America itself there’s around $1.6 trillion of unpaid federal student loans.