I should be completing my senior year of my bachelors this year (2016-2017).
Like many other students, I am hoping to get into grad school. I thought I would have a few months to make the concrete decisions about grad school as the FAFSA is usually not required until January 1st.
This year they changed it and now it is due on October 1st. I will most likely fill out the application as a graduate student but what if there is some sort of mishap that happens this year (family emergency etc.) that keeps me from completing my bachelors? I have a scholarship through the school where I am getting my bachelors that could extend another 2 years if I needed to complete the degree but it is contingent on having up to date FAFSA info.
So, if I have an emergency or don’t go to grad school do I just change my FAFSA at that time to say that I am still working towards my bachelors?
FAFSA will be available this year on October 1, as opposed to the previous date of January 1. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it is due on October 1. What do the grad schools that you want to apply to require?
Your FAFSA will not get you actual aid UNLESS you are enrolled in a college program.
So…if you are still completing your bachelors, you will submit to your current college. And you will hopefully get aid there.
If you graduate and are in grad school, what are you hoping to get? Really, the only things the FAFSA guarantees for grad students would be the Direct Loan unsubsidized. Some places have work study. No Pell grants or anything like that.
The very vast majority of grad school aid is merit based and is based on the strength of your application and the grad programs desire to have you in the cohort. Aid comes in the form of assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, sometimes work study, and loans.
If you really aren’t sure you are going to graduate (do you not have to apply for graduation at your school either the semester before or very early in the semester you are to graduate?), complete the FAFSA as if you are NOT graduating, that you will be a senior. That would give you the best FA if you are eligible for Pell, subsidized loans, etc. If you do graduate, then update the FAFSA with the correct information (that you did graduate).
If you fill out the FAFSA that you are still an undergrad, but you do in fact graduate and start grad school, the school will not give you the undergrad benefits anyway.
Thanks to those who replied. I realize I should have put 2017-2018 FAFSA. That may have made it sort of confusing.
For undergrad, I wouldn’t want to wait in my state to file for the FAFSA because they give extra need based grants on a first come first serve basis. If I wait, then I would loose out on grants that are very helpful as a low income student. This is why I was wondering what I should do.
As a non-traditional student of low socioeconomic status I always wanted to be safe guarded for the future. It seems every term I am effected by a family tragedy which I must deal with. It hasn’t effected me enough to leave but it is best to be aware of the options for the future.
For the 2017-2018 FAFSA you can list that you are going to be an undergraduate student, and you can always go back in to make corrections to indicate you will be a graduate student should you enroll in an MA/MS program in 2017-2018.
FAFSA is not due on Oct 1. It is available on Oct 1.
When you decide what schools you’re applying to, fill it out and send it in.
Or you can fill it out for your current school as an undergrad.
Masters programs rarely provide need-based aid so you’re better off sending it in to your undergrad school and then changing it to grad school if that’s the route you want to take.