Myth #1: “My parents make too much money, so I won’t qualify.” Reality: There is no income cut-off to qualify for federal student aid. Many factors—such as the size of your family and income are taken into account. When you fill out FAFSA, you’re also automatically applying for funds from your state. In fact, some schools won’t even consider you for any of their scholarships(including academic scholarships) until you’ve submitted a FAFSA form. Don’t make assumptions about what you’ll get—fill out the FAFSA form and find out.

Myth #2: Only students with good grades get financial aid.”      Reality: While a high grade point average will help a student get into a good school and may help with academic scholarships, most of the federal student aid programs do not take a student’s grades into consideration. Cal grants do look into GPA but will still offer aid to those who qualify financially and not solely based on GPA.

Myth #3: “My parents aren’t U.S. citizens, so there’s no way I’ll get aid.” Reality: Your parents’ citizenship status is NOT a factor, and the FAFSA form won’t even ask you about it. If your parents don’t have Social Security numbers, they must enter 000-00-0000 when the FAFSA form asks for their Social Security numbers. They will not able to create an FSA-ID but can print out the signature page and mail it in.

Myth #4: “The FAFSA form takes forever to fill out, and it’s really hard to do.”Reality: If you’ve got 30 minutes to spare, you’re good. Because that’s about how long it takes to fill out the FAFSA form. It’s also not nearly as hard as you might think. Use the IRS retrieval tool, attend a workshop and ask for help.

Myth #5: “I didn’t qualify for financial aid last year, so filling out the FAFSA form again is just a waste of time.”Reality: It’s super important to fill out a FAFSA form every year you’re in college or career school. Why? Because things can change. For instance, your school or state might create a new grant or scholarship, or the factors used to calculate your aid could change from one year to the next. Either way, if you don’t submit a new FAFSA form, you’re out of luck.