FAFSA

"Free Application for Federal Student Aid"

Money for College!

If you have questions or concerns about the FAFSA or how to finance college, please reach out to your school counselor.

Types of aid available through FAFSA:

Many scholarship programs also require families to have filled out the FAFSA to determine eligibility. Madison College's Scholars of Promise and UW's Badger Promise are two examples.

Steps to Complete the FAFSA

Students eligible for Federal Financial Aid will need to do the following to complete their FAFSA application:

Student Creates FSA ID and FSA ID Tips
Complete student demographic portion of FAFSA
Parent helps complete parent/family portion of FAFSA with their tax return
Parent creates or uses existing FSA ID to sign application
Student and parent signs using FSA ID or Parent signs paper signature page and mails in to FAFSAFYI - More graphics and in Spanish are located at the bottom of this page.

FAFSA Questions: Step-by-Step

This guide has tons of resources to help students and families fill out the FAFSA. The website also has many college planning and preparation resources for students and families.

What is needed from your parent to complete the FAFSA:

Federal Tax Return and W2s.
Untaxed Income Records, such as child support or veteran’s non education benefits
Information on savings, investments, business assets and farm assets (if applicable)
Social Security Number
Alien Registration Card or Permanent Resident Card (if you are not a U.S. citizen)
Date of birth for parents
Month and year of parents’ marriage, divorce or separation

*For more information about what type of financial aid is available watch this video or visit this website.

Eligibility:

How do you know if you are eligible & if you are a dependent or independent student (according to the federal government)?

Check out this website or make an appointment with your school counselor to review.

Reading Your Award Letter

After completing the FAFSA the college/s applied to will send the student an award letter that details what type of aid and how much financial aid a student is eligible for at that institution. Students can accept all the aid offered or can accept only what they need in order to pay for school.

Your Financial Aid Award Explained is a good resource to understand your award letter. Your school counselor can also help explain what is on your award letter.

Use the Compare Your Aid Awards tool to get a side-by-side comparison of your aid awards.

Read about how to compare your aid awards and analyze your results.

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