FAFSA Deadlines Approaching
By Guest Blogger, Mary Fallon – senior director of communications for Student Financial Aid Services, Inc., the nation’s largest and oldest non-governmental student aid advisor.
This is the busiest week for student aid because March 1 has the most deadlines – 9 states and 765 colleges. And March 2 is California’s deadline. In fact 70% of state and college deadlines are before April 15. You don’t have to file your income taxes to file your federal student aid application because estimates are perfectly fine. Better to estimate and get your FAFSA in fast (because most aid is first come, first served). Preparing well in advance of deadlines is best – submitting in a sense holds your place in the aid line. Then you can finalize the numbers like adjusted gross income later.
Aid competition is fierce this year. Good news is, there’s more money for Pell grants, work-study, and the tuition tax credit is increased and available to more families.
Let me add to your list with my own Top 10 Ways to Get More Aid based on common mistakes as seen by – the country’s oldest and largest non-governmental student aid advisor Student Financial Aid Services.
As you said, you can prepare the FAFSA yourself and file it for free. Or use the services of a paid professional, who works much like a tax consultant does to maximize your return.
One big misperception is that honest FAFSA preparation services charge for filing. They don’t. The fee you pay the expert is for the advice and preparation of the application not for “filing.” However, these professionals must tell clients on their Web site, ads, and during consultations about the Dept. of Education’s Web site and that filing is free.
Top 10 Ways to Get More Student Aid
1.Don’t delay. If you file your income taxes around the April 15th deadline, don’t wait until your taxes are completed to file your FAFSA or you will miss most of the state and college student aid deadlines. Most programs award aid on a first-come, first-serve basis. Providing accurate estimates on the FAFSA is perfectly fine. Be careful when calculating or estimating your adjusted gross income. Answering this question incorrectly won’t cause your FAFSA to be rejected, but could lower your aid award. Remember, your taxable income is not your adjusted gross income.
2.Don’t include untaxed Social Security as income. The law changed this year. Reporting it will inflate your expected family contribution and lower the amount of aid for which you are eligible.
3.Children of divorced parents typically believe that the parent they live with is their legal guardian and that they are in a legal guardianship. This is not true in all cases. A wrong answer will incorrectly change the student’s dependency status to “independent” and impact the aid calculation.
4.More families are withdrawing funds from retirement accounts early – sometimes it’s taxed and sometimes it’s not. Counting these funds in both adjusted gross income and untaxed income will inflate your expected family contribution and decrease aid.
5.If you or a family member has had their job eliminated, you may be eligible to answer “yes” to the “dislocated worker” question. You need to meet one of four criteria on the day that you submit your FAFSA. Student Financial Aid Services is seeing that one in every 10 families has a member whose job has been eliminated. Being a “dislocated worker” affects how your assets are treated and could even reduce your expected family contribution to zero.
6.Consider getting student aid advice and FAFSA preparation help from paid professionals. Federal law allows paid professional FAFSA preparation, much like tax advisors help families prepare their taxes accurately and correctly to maximize their tax refunds. Choose a professional FAFSA preparer who has a good Better Business Bureau rating, uses people to review each answer to ensure accuracy, receives high ratings from past clients, and has the goal of making you eligible for the most aid possible. With the average student aid award of $9,500 at stake, help from a professional FAFSA preparer can relieve some of the stress of finding money for college.
7.Don’t include your primary residence as an asset, or you will be inflating your expected family contribution and lowering your potential for aid.
8.Not all businesses are treated the same when calculating assets. Different rules apply to family-owned businesses employing fewer than 100 people. Getting this wrong won’t reject your FAFSA, but it could lower the amount of aid for which you are eligible.
9.List your last name exactly as it appears on your Social Security card or your FAFSA will be rejected.
10.Double-check all numbers. That sounds simple, but transposing numbers is one of the most common mistakes and will affect your aid award.
About the Guest Blogger:
Mary Fallon is senior director of communications for Student Financial Aid Services, Inc., the nation’s largest and oldest non-governmental student aid advisor.
fafsa.com
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