Financial Aid
⚠️Class of 2024, You may still apply for FAFSA and MHEC One-App. Contact your Financial Aid office or Ms. Wolk for any questions.
Important FAFSA Updates
The FAFSA is how students receive the pell grant, federal loans, state aid (MDCAPS), in many cases institutional aid, and some scholarships.
On January 30, 2024 the U.S. Department of Education announced that the earliest any FAFSA data will arrive at Colleges is early March. Additionally, that will be the earliest anyone may make changes to the FAFSA form.
I do understand how outrageous this is. Seniors should to be aware that they may receive automated emails from schools and scholarships alerting them that no FAFSA data has been received. All schools and scholarships, including MDCAPS, will now need to adjust their deadlines once more. All entities need to adjust to the timeframes of Federal Student Aid.
I encourage all to take this time to:
Attend the Financial Aid completion event and
Go on college tours (virtual, or in person) to continue research about the school you may attend
A few tips:
For those without a SSN, the system has not worked as promised. You are better off calling Federal Student Aid before attempting to create an account.
If parents have filed the 2022 taxes as "married filed jointly" only one parent needs to create a FAFSA account.
Note: Parents are unable to do the FAFSA for the student. If you feel this is what you have done, please reach out.
There is an ambiguous question that seems to ask about loans, but is really asking about sharing the parent information. This is in the student section. Please read all questions carefully.
If a student responds "no" to this, they indicate they would not like to share parent information. The form will then not be sent to the parent. The correction cannot be made until March.
Students should check with the schools they are considering as their deadlines will differ for financial aid. Students may have additional paperwork to complete with individual schools.
Unless students can pay the sticker price for college tuition, they should not feel pressured to make any college decisions right now.
College decisions are best made with the consideration of a financial aid package - which is held up due to the delay of FAFSA.
If a student OR a parent do not have a SSN, they may both now create their FSA ID's.
Simply create an account at Studentaid.gov. They will be taken through a verification process. This process will vary per person*
Regardless of SSN, if a student or parent are creating an account, it will take 5-10 days to verify. Meaning the student can begin the application 5-10 days after account creation.
Both student and parent/guardian need to have their own accounts.
