What is FAFSA?
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (known as the FAFSA) is a form that can be prepared annually by current and prospective college students (undergraduate and graduate) in the United States to determine their eligibility for student financial aid (including the Pell Grant, Federal student loans and Federal Work-Study).
Where do I find this form?
The FAFSA is available online at FAFSA on the Web.
You can download a paper copy at www.studentaid.ed.gov/PDFfafsa or call 800-4-FED-AID (433-3243).
What do I need to fill this form out?
Get a PIN. Get a U.S. Department of Education personal identification number (PIN) by filling out the short application at https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm. Write this PIN number down somewhere you will remember.
Your Social Security Number
Your Alien Registration Number (if you are not a U.S. citizen)
Your most recent federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned. (Note: You may be able to transfer your federal tax return information into your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.)
Bank statements and records of investments (if applicable)
Records of untaxed income (if applicable)
A Federal Student Aid PIN to sign electronically. (If you do not already have one, visit www.pin.ed.gov to obtain one.
You will also need most of the above information for your parent(s)
My parents won't fill out FAFSA. What do I do?
This is an excellent article that explains all the different circumstances in which parents can't or won't pay for college. You should find some help here: