FAFSA Form & Financial Aid Form Blog

FAFSA: FREE Application for Federal Aid.

When applying for federal aid, filling out your fafsa is the first and most important part in determining whether or not your eligible for federal loans. You can download this free application on fafsa online . Remember this application should be free so if you see some sites out there that want to charge you for this beware. This application is based on you or your parents last year tax returns so have that info. handy to make the process go a little bit easier. When you have completed this process you should receive a Student Aid Report. (SAR). On this form it should tell you if and how much federal aid you have been awarded. This is not the last step however… Many get confused and think fafsa is the lender of the loan and the money is automatically disbursed to the school. If you are awarded pell grants or a perkins loan contact your school and if you are awarded a Sub or Unsub Stafford Loan you must then apply for that loan. I must reiterate that Stafford is not the name of the Lender it is simply the type of loan you are receiving. You can apply for this loan on Stafford Loan Further if you still feel confused you can always give one of our reps a call at the Student Loan Network… (877)328-1565.

Morning everyone…I just wanted to write a quick note about a common question I hear a lot on a daily basis…”How is a loan considered Financial Aid?”…Well the way in which the U.S. Government determines it is as follows…Stafford and Perkins loans are low interest loans guaranteed by the Federal government…what does this mean for you? Well, it means that you have rights with these loans that you do not necessarily have with a private/alternative student loan. These rights include deferment if you become unemployed, forbearance if you want to put your payments on hold, and loan forgiveness if you become disabled. These benefits are really good; therefore you must fill out a FAFSA in order to get these loans. The government wants to make sure you NEED this loan before they give it to you. Hope this clears some things up.

The new 2007-2008 FAFSA form is now available for review (PDF)(. Please note that the Department of Education will not accept it until January 1, 2007.