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Going to college can be expensive

Applying for financial aid can be an overwhelming undertaking for students and parents, especially if it’s your first time applying. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) asks questions about your taxes, assets, retirement accounts and uses jargon that sounds like a foreign language. It’s not uncommon to have several questions running through your head before you even begin the application process. While applying for financial aid makes most people go into panic mode, it’s not as scary as you may think. Below are the answers to some common questions that come up each year.

How often do I have to apply for financial aid? The FAFSA must be filled out each year that the student wants to receive financial aid. The 2016-2017 FAFSA was available on Jan. 1, 2016. In the past, the next year’s FAFSA has always been available as of Jan. 1, however a big change is coming to the FAFSA. Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, the FAFSA will be available on Oct. 1. An earlier application date also brings about changes to the income that will be reported. The 2017-2018 FAFSA will ask for information from your prior prior year’s taxes, which means you will report 2015 income on the 2017-2018 FAFSA.

When is the deadline to apply for financial aid? There is not a federal deadline to fill out the FAFSA. The 2016-2017 FAFSA can be filled out Jan. 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. The deadline to fill out the FAFSA to receive financial aid from the state of Iowa is June 30, 2016. The availability of state financial aid varies from school to school. Most schools have a priority deadline established. FAFSAs submitted by the priority deadline may be given priority consideration in the awarding process.

Do I have to file my taxes before I fill out my FAFSA? No, the 2016-2017 FAFSA, which was available on Jan. 1, 2016, can be filled out with estimates until you file your taxes. On the income section of the FAFSA, you can indicate that you “will file” your taxes and you can estimate your income based on your prior year’s tax returns. Once you file your income taxes for 2015, you must make a correction to your FAFSA and update your income information. After your taxes are filed, you should have access to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool on the FAFSA which links up to the IRS website and after confirming your information, you are able to transfer all of your tax information from the IRS website onto your FAFSA. If you are unable to use the IRS Data Retrieval tool, you can manually update your tax information by entering your information onto the FAFSA.

What happens if I make an error? A Student Aid Report is sent to students after the FAFSA is submitted. It lists each question from the FAFSA and the student’s answer. If a question was answered incorrectly, the student has the ability to make a FAFSA correction on the web or by mailing in their Student Aid Report. Some FAFSAs are selected for verification by the FAFSA’s Central Processing Center. If a FAFSA is selected for verification, the school will request documents to verify specific questions on the FAFSA. If a school finds that a question was answered incorrectly after receiving the requested documentation, the school can make a correction to update the information.

I have a part-time job and live on my own. Do I have to put my parents on my FAFSA? Yes, the FAFSA asks a series of questions to determine a student’s dependency status. Students under the age of 24 must meet certain qualifications on the FAFSA to be considered independent from their parents. Not living with your parents does not automatically qualify you to be an independent student.

My parents make a lot of money, so will I qualify for financial aid? While the FAFSA takes parent’s income largely into consideration, there are other factors that go into determining how much financial aid a student will qualify for. The FAFSA asks questions such as, household size, Education Credits, child support paid, etc. which will offset the income reported. Keep in mind that the FAFSA is the application for all Federal aid, which includes grants and two different types of student loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. The government pays the interest on subsidized loans while the student is in school, essentially making the loan interest free while the student is in school. The unsubsidized loan will accrue interest while the student is in school. If the FAFSA determines that the student won’t qualify for any grant aid (funds that don’t have to be repaid), the student may still qualify for a subsidized loan. The unsubsidized loan is not based on income and unless you fall into a special circumstance, most students qualify for an unsubsidized loan.

My parents don’t claim me on their taxes. Do I have to include them on my FAFSA? The FAFSA asks for information from your income taxes and, more specifically, asks for the number of exemptions claimed on your tax returns. The FAFSA also asks a question about household size. Your tax exemptions do not have to match the household size reported on the FAFSA. FAFSA asks “how many people are in your parents’ household?” and it specifies who to include. A dependent student will always include themselves as a member of their parents’ household even if the student doesn’t live with his/her parents. Other children in the household are counted if the student’s parents will provide more than half of their support during the year and any other people living in the parents’ household who the parents support and will continue to support throughout the year should also be included. For students who have parents that are divorced or separated, the student will only use the parent who provides more than half of his/her support (and their spouse if remarried).

I am under the age of 24 and have a child, but I live with my parents and they pay for most things that my baby and I need. Do I have to use my parent’s information on my FAFSA? Students who are under the age of 24 are considered to be dependent students for FAFSA purposes unless they can answer “yes” to one of FAFSA’s other dependency questions. One dependency question asks “Do you now have or will you have children who will receive more than half of their support from you between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017?” Students can answer “yes” to this question only if they provide more than half of the child’s support. If a student indicates that they support a child, but does not report any income on their FAFSA, the school may contact the student to make sure the student answered the question correctly.

Do I have to repay financial aid? Financial aid is considered to be any funds that help pay for educational expenses. This includes grants, scholarships, and loans that a student receives. Students don’t have to repay grants or scholarships, however loans must be repaid. In general, students must begin to make payments on student loans six months after graduation.

Financial aid professionals know better than anyone that the financial aid process can be confusing and frustrating. It’s important to ask questions throughout the entire financial aid process. Never hesitate to contact the Financial Aid Office at your school and if they don’t have the answer to your question, they can direct you to someone who does.

Linsey Christie is director of financial aid at Iowa Central Community College.

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