Fed Financial
college financial aid... now what?
I am so lost on the whole financial aid thing. I turned in my FAFSA and CSS before the due dates, and recently I have received several acceptance letters. Tonight I just turned in the correction for my FAFSA for the 2007 tax return. Now what do I do? Are the schools that accepted me going to tell me how much I need to pay for my tuition any time soon? I still haven't mailed them my family 2007 tax return yet. Very confused right now, please provide me with as much info as possible. Thank you a thousand times!!!
Public Comments
- Submit your parents' tax return info as needed. The schools that you sent your FAFSA to will then send you an award offer, usually a letter, but my school gives award information online. If a school does awards only online they will send you something to tell you to log on and see your awards. Awards can be loans, grants, scholarships, or work study funds that you qualify for. PLUS loans may also be included, which are loans your parents can get to help you and they will have to pay it back when you are out of school. Talk your award offer over with your parents and then you may choose to accept all or part of the award, or reject the whole thing. The letter or website you get your award information from should have information on how to accept/reject your offer and what steps to take after that. If you accept loans, you will have to pick a lender from the school's website and complete some paperwork for the lender. With loans, you usually don't do anything after you submit all the initial paperwork. They will automatically pay the set loan amount to the school a couple weeks into each semester. You can always call the financial aid departments at the schools you applied to to get assistance and get additional questions answered. It's better that way because each school is a little different. Also, you have to submit a new FAFSA every year. I usually submit mine after I file my taxes. You will repeat the award offer process each year. But like I said, don't be afraid to call the financial aid department and ask questions! They know better than anyonoe else.
- Okay, well to start with I am guessing that since you filed your FAFSA before you filed taxes you guessed on the FAFSA in that case, whatever colleges that you have told FAFSA to notify they will ask you to send them a copy of your 2007 taxes once your have done them. Well, most colleges don't tell you if you are an incoming freshmen until april some even in may. So, for now all you can do is wait. And the colleges will notify you if they need anything else from you. Are you a dependent? meaning do your parents pay for you food, and living and bills if yes, then you will also need to send your parents. Fafsa is basically by the government, it can be loans or grants it really depends on your EFC or expected family contribution, to be on the safe side I will recommend that you apply for school scholarships too, just b/c there are times that the student doesn't get any grant so they end up taking a loan, so at least if that happens in your case, and you get even a little bit of scholarship, that will help you not be overloaded with loans. hope this helps let me know if you have any further questions
- You will need to send your parent's taxes. Most schools will not offer you a financial aid package until they have completed verification, which they need the taxes in order to complete. The schools you were accepted to (and also listed them on your FAFSA) will soon send you a financial aid award letter (you will start receiving these usually sometime in April.) This is your financial aid package. You will need to look up the cost of attendance at each school. You will need to calculate in tuition and fees, housing and meal plan. Some schools will list the costs on your financial aid award letter, but most will not. You will have to add up your cost and compare it to your financial aid. This will give you a good estimate of what will be left over for you to pay. Most likely you will not receive an actual bill until around August. You will also need to review all the information included with your financial aid award letter. It will tell you if there is anything else you need to do to receive your award.
