Life Skill for Teens-A Quickish Guide to Filling Out Your FASFA.

Your FASFA (aka Free Application for Student Federal Aid) determines your need for financial assistance with resources from the federal government such as Pell Grants, loans, and federal work-study. Don’t worry we will also cover all these terms in this post. Furthermore, your FAFSA also helps your chosen college or university determine how much aid they will provide once you are accepted. But there are many legal documents in existence, so which ones do you actually need for your FASFA? For simplicity we will be operating under the assumption that you will be filing as a dependent student (those who do not qualify to file as an independent student) and you have a valid social security number.. For students who plan to file as independent (wards of state, 24+, graduate students, etc.) feel free to check the official FASFA article on dependency status here. 

W-2: also known as a Work and Tax Statement, is provided by your or your guardian’s employer to the IRS in order to accurately determine your total earnings for a given year and also determines how much taxes were withheld for your taxes. Generally, if you or your guardian are a standard employee within a company (i.e. not self-employed, there is a different form for that because of course there is) you should also receive a copy of this form. If this copy is lost you can obtain another by checking with your company’s payroll or HR department. While these are not needed to fill out your FASFA, often colleges and universities will request copies of W-2s, both yours and your guardians in order to further demonstrate financial need. 

Tax Returns are the official forms submitted to the IRS that determine whether you owe money or you are entitled to a refund from the government (I’m still hoping for one!) It calculates your total income, additional credits, or deductions. The main form used is a 1040 which includes the list above. Other forms needed in the return depend on your family situation. If your parents, for example, own a business or company they will usually have to fill out a Schedule C form; however, if your guardians do not own a business, have bonds, or are self-employed, you will most likely only need the 1040. That was a lot of information! You’re doing great (we’re not even close to being done). All this information will be in the tax return since your guardians should have filed unless they qualify for a non-filer tax statement (if your income is below the IRS threshold for your age and filing status). The way FASFA works is that it will require the tax return filed approximately two years prior. For example, for the 2025-2026 academic year you would have needed tax returns from 2023. 

Now that we have established what we need to fill out the FASFA, who then fills out the FASFA? Once again, we are assuming that you are filing as a dependent student (with a valid SSN). 

1. If this is your first time filling out the FASFA form, you must first create an account. It will ask for your name, date of birth, and SSN number. 

2. Once you have created your account, you will have to select the academic year you are applying for aid. The FASFA form usually opens for the following academic year on October 1st (subject to change). For example, for the 2027-2028 academic cycle the FASFA is scheduled to open this October. Also, the deadline for the form itself would then be June 30, 2028. Despite this, most colleges and some states (luckily not Kansas) have specific deadlines, so make sure to double-check especially if aid is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

3. After selecting the correct year, you will then be asked questions about your demographics, academics, and parent/contributor information. Additionally, you will ask about your own finances including your 1040 if you are required to file. 

4. You will then have to electronically sign the application. 

5. Additionally, you will then select the schools you want to receive your FAFSA information. 

6. Finishing up the student portion of the application, you will then be asked to give contributor information. These would be your guardians. If they are married and have filed jointly, only one contributor will need to be invited. If not, individual accounts will have to be created. Please note, while you will need a valid SSN, your contributor is not required to. If prompted and they do not have a SSN, it is recommended to use all zeros. You may also use an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) though it is important to note to specifically select that it is an ITIN otherwise your application may be prone to delays.

Yay! You survived the student section! Now you can let your guardians suffer-I mean join in on the fun. 

1. Your contributor(s) will be invited via email. Be sure to check the spam folder. Once invited they will also have to create an account similar to the student section. 

2. When they have accepted the invitation, they will also have to fill out the sections on personal information, demographics, and finances (remember those fun sections on legal documents above?) 

3. They will then electronically sign the form as well.

Fantastic. The FASFA is filled out and sent for processing which may take a day up to two weeks. While you wait, make sure you entered everything correctly. Corrections may be made when processing is over and you receive your submission summary. Once you have received your submission summary, you will be given a rough estimate of the type of aid you are eligible for. Some of these you may be familiar with if you read our previous article on financial aid. 

What is included in my submission summary? 

Federal Pell Grants are awarded if financial need has been demonstrated. The maximum amount for a Pell Grant is around a rough estimate of $7,000 though the amount you’d receive is dependent on the cost of attendance and your enrolment status. Like most grants, you do not have to pay this amount back. According to the Education Data Initiative, for the 2023-2024 academic year, 32.4% of all undergraduates were awarded a Pell Grant with over a half given to households with annual incomes of $40,000 or less. 

Federal Direct Loans include a few different types of loans funded by the U.S. government. There are subsidized loans where the U.S. government pays the interest and unsubsidized loans where you as the recipient pays the interest from the moment the loan is added to your college account. There are also Direct PLUS Loans which are available to graduate students and for the parents of dependent students in order to cover any additional expenses not covered by other financial aid though these require a credit check. Loans can also include a direct consolidated loan where all federal loans can be combined into a single loan with a single monthly payment. 

Federal Work-Study allows the student to work to pay for academic expenses. These are often set-aside specifically for students who qualify for this financial aid program. 

SAI is not a direct type of financial aid. Rather it is a tool used by the financial aid office at your school to determine how much financial aid you may qualify for. Your SAI (Student Aid Index) number may range from -1,500 - 999,999 with a lower number signifying a greater need for financial aid. 

Not everyone receives a large amount of aid from the government. Nor do colleges

require a FASFA application for admission. So why fill out the form? While you may not receive much from the FASFA itself, if you plan to apply for any type of financial aid at your college, you will need your FASFA. 

You did it! You survived! While that was a ton of information in a short time, now that you (hopefully) have a basic understanding of the application, the actual action of filling out the form will be significantly easier and less migraine-inducing. Good luck and you got this. 

For any additional questions or for more resources, reach out to our Career Readiness Program at Wisdom In Motion.