FAFSA Form & Financial Aid Form Blog

Get your FAFSA in by tomorrow – by now, you should have all your tax information, so get it in! The pool of free and low cost money is dwindling rapidly!

File your FAFSA now!

As reported on the Financial Aid Podcast yesterday, an interesting loophole in the drug conviction question on the FAFSA, Question 31. If your conviction for possession or distribution of drugs is a municipal court conviction, it will not impact your federal financial aid eligibility.

If, however, your conviction is a state court or federal court judgment, then it will impact your financial aid eligibility.

If you make less than $50,000 Adjusted Gross Income for tax year 2005, you may be eligible for the IRS “Free File” service, which is offered at the IRS web site, IRS.gov. One important thing to note: Free File is offered by a variety of commercial vendors, like H&R Block. One thing that is very likely as you’re going through the Free File service, should you choose to use it, is that you will be marketed to for virtually every add on service that the preparers offer, from insurance to guarantees to fast tax refund loans (often called advance tax refund or instant tax refund). These are the very worst of the lot, the equivalent of payday loans with annualized interest rates soaring as high as 1,700%.

Yes, you read that correctly. Interest rates as high as 1,700%. By taking advantage of Free File, chances are you will be able to file electronically, which means that you should have your refund in about 1 – 3 weeks anyway. If you can hold out, you can save yourself hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars in “refund loan” fees.

If you haven’t filed your FAFSA yet, you absolutely should before January 31, 2006! That’s 7 days away.

If you haven’t already filed your FAFSA, you still have two more weeks until the end of January. In previous posts, we talked about how the end of January is usually symbolic of the end of the pool of free or low interest money available, so make sure you file your FAFSA. If you don’t have your W-2 forms to estimate your 2005 income, the last paystub of the year makes a fine substitute!

The clock is ticking ever onward. Be sure you have filed your FAFSA! Remember that the most aid goes to the earliest qualified applicants, so file now!

Colorado state recently revealed that only 1/3 of state residents who qualified for grants and subsidized aid got it. Colorado operates on a first-come, first-served basis for its limited pool of free aid, based on your FAFSA submission date.

Given that most deadlines in Colorado are between March 1 and April 1, this means that most qualified applicants who receive aid get it in the first 1/3 of the application period – basically, from January 1 to 31.

For other states, this probably holds true as well. What’s the lesson here?

File your FAFSA before January 31 if you want a crack at the free money!

What happens when you file a FAFSA before opening day?

The Department of Education flings it into the trash!

If you inadvertently filed your 2006-2007 FAFSA prior to January 1, 2006, you will need to refile it. You can do so right here on our site.

Also, an important note from the state of Colorado – only 1/3 of their students eligible for state aid actually got any, because there wasn’t enough to go around. Aid there – as is in many states – is first come, first served, and that’s determined by your FAFSA filing date. File now.

A poetic way to say… the game is on! The Department of Education is now accepting FAFSA submissions for the 2006 – 2007 school year, and every minute that goes by is a minute’s worth of financial aid that is no longer available. File your FAFSA today – right now!