This lesson covers...
A step-by-step walk-through of my favorite government form
Time
My record is 12 minutes…
I’m guessing ~1 hour for a first-timer
By the end you should...
Know the 19 biggest mistakes students and parents make when filling out this form and how to avoid them
Be prepared to fill out your FAFSA correctly and without stress
You’ve prepared. You’ve set aside 30-45 minutes to rock this aid form. You will prevail.
Let’s set the vibe. Choose your own pump up music, or choose from these three classics.
Pumped?
Let’s do this.
Turn down for FAFSA!
(Seriously turn it down. You’re going to need to concentrate.)
Step 1) Go to FAFSA.ed.gov. Click on the new user “start here” button. It’s going to open a new tab. Don’t panic.
Step 2) Select “I am the student” and input your FSA ID username and password. (You saved it in a safe place, right?)
Step 3) Click “accept.” This page is like the “Terms & Conditions” thing you never actually read.
Step 4) Choose the form for the year you will be in college. (i.e, If you’re graduating high school in spring 2022, then you fill out the “2022-2023” form.) Which brings us to …
Completing the wrong year’s form
If you do this, you’ll have to start all over again once you catch your mistake! Yikes! Don’t be a FAFSArookie. Even if, technically … you are one.
Step 5) Create a save key: a temporary, super-easy-to-remember password that’s at least 5 characters. Write this down next to your username/password.
Step 6) Read or skip the introduction. Your choice.
Step 7) Start FAFSAing!
Wait? That’s it? You’re throwing me in the deep end? What if I have questions?!
Not clicking the blue circle question marks when you have a question
You’ll notice that to the right of literally every question there’s a little “?” icon. If at any point, for any question, you’re confused, click the blue circle question mark button for more clarification. If you do get truly stuck at any point, simply make sure you have your FSA ID and save key written down somewhere accessible, log out (your info will save), and come back to it when you’ve got what you need. But remember, time’s a-ticking and FAFSA money is first-come, first-serve in many states!
Section By Section Tips
Below are some answers to common questions and preventative tips so you can avoid other rookie mistakes that students and parents often make and that lead to issues later on. We’ll lay them out for you below for each of the six sections. You may just want to keep this guide open alongside your FAFSA so you can reference it as you go.
Student Demographics
Helpful tip: A bachelor’s degree is the one you get after four years of study. An associate degree is the one you get after two years of community college, online school, or through some four year colleges. Make sure you pick the degree you’ll be working on for the upcoming year. Different degrees are tied to different funding: ex. Undergraduates working on a bachelor’s/associate degree are eligible for Pell, but graduate students aren’t.
Not answering “yes” to the work study question
Federal work study gives you the opportunity to work on campus: in the library, rec center, admissions office, etc. If you put “no” or “don’t know,” you likely won’t be offered an on-campus job as part of your financial aid package. If you put “yes” and decide later you don’t want it, no harm, no foul.
Marking “highest school completed by parent” as “college or beyond”
when that parent doesn’t have a four-year degree
This question determines your eligibility for aid as a “first-gen” student. You are not considered “first gen” if one parent has a bachelor’s degree. Also, this question should only be answered for biological/adopted parents, not legal guardians/adoptive parents.
Tip: Selective Service is the formal name for the registering for the military draft. If you have not signed up prior to filing the FAFSA, you are asked to do so during the FAFSA application process. (This will change October 2022.) Registering does not mean you will be drafted (the draft was last used in 1973) and doesn’t mean you’ve agreed to join the military. But it is something you have to do if you qualify (i.e., are a male between 18 and 25) and want to receive federal aid.
School Selection
You’d think this would be a super easy section, but there’s actually a lot that routinely goes wrong for folks.
Tip: Don’t worry about the city unless you just happen to know it. You can even type in just part of the school’s name and it should pop up.
Tip: Use part of a name (“Chapel Hill”) instead of an abbreviation (“UNC”) for fastest results.
Not using the “search” feature to look up your high school
Not doing so can mess with each high school’s FAFSA completion rates. Do your counselor and yourself a favor and take two seconds to use the search button.
Not adding all your colleges you will apply to
If you don’t add a college, that college won’t get your FAFSA info. If the college doesn’t get your FAFSA info, they’ll assume you don’t need the money and won’t include grants in what they award you. Make sure every single college you’ve submitted an application to is listed here.
If you decide to apply to another college later, you can always log back into FAFSA and update this section without having to redo any other parts of the form besides the signature at the end. Nifty!
Tip: Once you’ve added one, click “add more schools.” You can add up to 10.
Note for my overachievers: You can add up to 10 colleges at a time. If you are applying to more than 10 colleges, you’ll need to submit the form for the first 10 colleges, wait a few days for it to process (you should receive a Student Aid Report once it has) , then log in and change out your colleges and submit again. Please be sure to confirm the SAR is correct before removing/adding more colleges, and please also be sure that you’ve received confirmation that the FAFSA has been downloaded by the college. (For some schools, this does not occur until after you’ve been accepted.)
Not putting at least one college from your state (if you’re applying to any) in the first slot
There are a few states that require a “qualifying in-state institution” school to be listed at the top or in the top two or three positions on the FAFSA for the student to qualify for state aid. It’s a stupid, arcane, confusing rule that is hopefully dying out soon, but a rule nonetheless for now. I always advise families to do this, regardless of the state they live in, because who can keep track?
Accidentally choosing the wrong school. (This happens a lot.)
For example, “University of South Carolina” is not the same as “University of South Carolina Aiken.” Also, fun fact: there are two Anderson Universities: one in South Carolina and one in Indiana. Finally, “East Carolina University—Undergraduate” is not the same as “East Carolina University—Medical School”. Please be sure you’ve got the correct city, state and program/college selected for each of your schools to avoid much confusion and hassle. Slow down. Double check. Twice.
Not choosing “on campus” when you’re unsure about where you will live freshman year
Colleges award aid based on where you choose to live. If you live off campus or with a parent, the amount you’re awarded will decrease to reflect the decrease in your direct costs. If you’re still deciding, put “on campus” for now, see what the financial aid looks like, and if you need to adjust later, no big deal. It’s easier to shift down than up.
Not taking a moment to check the college’s graduation stats
The national average for graduation rate at four-year colleges is 52%. If the colleges you’re applying to have graduation rates below that, you may want to figure out why so many students aren’t making it to graduation.
Dependency Status
Letting your parents fill out the FAFSA by themselves
On questions like the first one of this section—”What is your marital status as of today?”—many a parent has selected something other than “single” because they think the FAFSA is asking them the question. The FAFSA is your financial aid form. So any questions addressed to “you” are referring to you, the student, the one going to college.
Parent Demographics
(Skip to “Student Financials” if you’re independent)
Important note for students with undocumented parents: students may be eligible regardless of parental status. For undocumented parents who file taxes, it is imperative that they DO NOT use their taxpayer ID number, but rather 000000000 in the place of SSN (This trips many people up because the TIN has the same number of digits). Students will need to submit the page/form multiple times before the error message disappears.
Undocumented guardians are unable to create an FSA ID, and therefore cannot sign digitally. Students must print the form, have the parent sign it, and then mail it to the FAFSA processing center. After the FAFSA is initially completed, students will be able to make changes (such as school selection) without having to mail. Any changes that would affect EFC would need to be re-submitted. This is yet another reason to start as close to October 1st as possible. If a student is applying with an early deadline, contact the financial aid office if there is a risk of missing the earlier financial aid deadline.
Using information from an adult in your life who is not your FAFSA Parent
See “Who is my FAFSA parent?” in Section 3.0 if you’re unsure about this. It’s super important.
Miscounting the number of people in the household
The FAFSA takes the time to explain it, and the number you put makes a big difference for aid, so be sure to double check!
Miscounting how many people in your family will be in college
This is a super important question as the number of students your family is supporting in college simultaneously drastically impacts how much aid you will be eligible for.
You will be in college obviously, so that’s one. Then you add anyone else in your family (except your parents) who is a dependent of your parents and is enrolled at least half-time (usually 6+ credit hours) in any sort of college—university, community college, many trade schools—except graduate school. (Those older siblings are on their own!)
Please note that this policy is changing starting with the 2022 FAFSA form.
Parent Financials
The two mistakes I’m about to list in this section are perhaps the most common and the most detrimental to families seeking financial aid. You’re so close to the end. Keep going!
Not using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT), if at all possible.
(Important note: students with undocumented parents cannot use this tool.)
Once you fill out the basic information in this section, there should be a button that pops up that says “Link to IRS.” (See image below)
Click that “Link to IRS” button. It’s gonna ask for your parent’s FSA ID and then take you to the IRS website. Don’t panic. It’s only going to need you to fill out your parent’s name and address as it would have appeared the year they filed their prior-prior tax return.
Did I lose you at “prior-prior”? Don’t worry. It’s difficult for most people. Let’s break it down.
What year are you starting college?
(If you’ll be starting spring semester, pretend you’re starting the fall before.)
Subtract 2.
This is the year we’re talking about. Type in the address your folks used on the tax return for this prior-prior year.
So, for example, if you were starting college in the fall of 2025, you’d enter information reflecting your parent’s 2023 tax return.
Next year you’ll use the next year’s form and so on until you finish college!
Once you’ve filled this in, select the “Transfer to FAFSA” button, and you’ll be brought back to the FAFSA website, and most of your parent’s tax information will be magically filled in!
If there are any issues, don’t worry, you can complete the FAFSA without using the IRS DRT. It just means you’re probably going to get selected for verification in a few months. You’ll get an email saying “FAFSA Verification,” and then you’ll have to follow the email’s instructions to send tax returns and other documents. More on this in Section 3.3.
To avoid verification (meaning extra steps later) and having to translate your parent’s 1040 tax return, use the IRS DRT.
Letting your parents include the value of the home you live in or any of their retirement accounts in the investments question total.
The FAFSA asks, “As of today, what is the net worth of your parents' investments, including real estate (not your parents' home)?”
The “not your parents’ home” was newly added because soooooo many people kept misrepresenting their investment number, which cost them serious aid dollars!
Parents also shouldn’t list any of their retirement accounts as assets (401K, IRA, Roth IRA, Keogh Plan).
Life insurance policies, cars, motorcycles, boats, and baseball card collections also don’t count as assets, just in case you were wondering.
One asset that should be listed is any college savings plan (something you may have heard called a 529) your parents have set up for you and/or any siblings. A common mistake families make is listing these assets under the student’s assets instead of the parents’. This can also cost you money as parent assets are assessed (count against you) at a much lower rate than student assets.
Student Financials
Skipping questions about your assets if the answers are close to zero
If you don’t have much in the bank, let the colleges know! It helps them know where you’re at so they can better meet your needs. If you were given the option to skip the asset questions, it means your answers won’t negatively impact your aid eligibility unless you’re sitting on a significant sum of cash.
Woohoo! You made it to the Sign and Submit Page!
Are you a champion? Yes.
Are you a preparer? No.
As in, someone else isn’t preparing this form for you.
So make sure that “No” is selected for the preparer question and move on.
Check over everything one more time to make sure it’s correct. Once you submit, you can’t touch it for a few days while it processes, and making corrections can throw up red flags that get you selected for verification.
Click “Accept.” Then sign using your FSA ID.
Then have your parent (if applicable) do the same.
Boom! You did it. You’ve made it to the confirmation page!
Now for the fun part! Stay right there and let’s see what you’ve won!
Two final big mistakes to be aware of…
Not keeping an eye on your email
Specifically, verification emails. Some colleges may have follow up questions/actions you need to take care of before they give you any money. If you miss the email, the college won’t process your award letter and the hard work you just did goes poof and you get nothing. To avoid this, it’s time for an Action Item.
[action_item]
Action Item:
Set a reminder on your phone/computer/wall calendar for the first Sunday of each month—from now until May—to check your email (the one you used for FAFSA) for the words “FAFSA verification” If an email with this in the subject line pops up, use the FAFSA Verification part of this section as a guide.
Last one…
Not filling out the FAFSA again next year
The FAFSA is an annual form. If you want to receive money for college again next year, you’ll have to complete this form all over again.
With this in mind, do your future self a favor and go ahead and take all the paperwork, notes and most importantly your login information from today and stick it in a folder/safe place so you’ll have it handy next year.
Then go to the next section to figure out how much free money you are/could be getting!
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