Sauvik

January 1^st is big for two reasons:

1. It’s the start of a new year!
2. For Seniors, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will become available!!! (Not as exciting, but VERY important)

You may be asking yourself, “What in the world is the FAFSA and why is it so important?”

To put it simply, completing the FAFSA is your first step in receiving financial aid to pay for college. Your FASFA results can qualify you to receive financial aid in the form of grants, scholarships and loans based on financial need. So, if you would like to receive financial aid to assist you in paying for college, you must fill out a FAFSA (like I said, it’s pretty important!).

The earlier you can submit your FAFSA the better. At the University of Iowa, we would like the FAFSA document as soon as possible, so completing and submitting your FAFSA on January 2^nd is ideal. The Office of Student Financial Aid will receive the results from your online FAFSA one to two weeks after you submit the document.

Now you may have a lot of questions about completing the FAFSA, and understandably so.

To assist you with these questions, I have provided a “Cliff Noted” guide to filling out the FAFSA below:

1. How do I access the FAFSA?
   • You will find the FAFSA Application online at https://fafsa.ed.gov/
   • The first thing you will do is create a U.S. Department of Education Personal Identification Number (PIN). The PIN will be your personalized login to access your personal information. You can get your PIN at this link: https://pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp
2. What information/documents will I need as I fill out the FAFSA?
   • Your social security number
   • Your parent’s social security number
   • Your driver’s license number
   • Federal tax information or tax returns
3. How will the University of Iowa obtain my FAFSA results?
   • When competing the FAFSA, you will have the option to choose up to ten schools to send your FAFSA results to. The schools will then automatically receive the results electronically.
4. How do I submit the FAFSA?
   • Before the application can be submitted you will have to sign the document with your PIN. After signing and submitting the document, you will receive a confirmation email indicating that your FAFSA has been received.

5. So I submitted the FAFSA, now what?
   Sit tight. After reviewing your FAFSA results, The Office of Student Financial Aid will send you an email instructing you to check your award notification in your ISIS account. The award letter will list out what kind of aid you qualified for and provide you with a new estimated cost of attendance.

A tip sheet has been created by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) to help students in unique situations.
NASFAA has also composed a list of  tips and common mistakes to avoid (PDF) when filing the FAFSA.

And don’t forget, if you ever need any help we are here for you! Below is the contact information for our Office of Student Financial Aid.

Phone; 319-335-1450
Email: financial-aid@uiowa.edu

Sauvik

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2014 at 3:52 pm and is filed under General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.