College Admissions Counseling Blog

High school seniors and their families need to be working on completion of the FAFSA for next year's financial aid. The FAFSA is required by all colleges to qualify for federal financial aid and should be filed as soon as possible. Most colleges have a priority filing deadline which can be as early as January 15. The FAFSA needs to be filed by the priority deadline to make sure that the student will be eligible for all possible federal financial aid. You should check with each of the colleges in which you have an interest to learn what their priority filing deadline is.

The FAFSA requires information similar to that required on the tax returns. However, if students and their parents don't have their tax returns completed by the priority date for filing at the colleges in which you have an interest, file the FAFSA using estimated information. It is understood that some people will not have all of their information available in time to file the FAFSA and estimated information is perfectly acceptable. You can revise the FAFSA once you have acquired all of the necessary information.