FAFSA Forms - when and where to fill out

Paying for College
1

Hi All,
My daughter is a Jr High school graduate and will be applying for several UCs (university of California) - for 2020-21 year
(UCSB, UCI, UCSC - her main interest)

I will make an effort to minimize our payments and will need to fill out FAFSA form(s)
It is currently all the schedules - for 2019-20 school year

When should all the Forms and deadlines be available - for 2020-21 year?
(Just trying not to miss anything, as I am often busy (working professional)) and afraid to miss the dates.

Also, will FAFSA be available online on every UC website?
Or - Should I go directly to FAFSA related website?

Now, I don’t see how can I access FAFSA.

Thank you for help!

2

FAFSA will open Oct 1, 2019 for 2020/21 school year. It will be good for all schools, access it here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa

Here are some tips:
https://www.nasfaa.org/fafsa_tips

You can complete FAFSA4caster now to see your projected EFC (sometimes also needed to run NPCs)
https://fafsa.ed.gov/spa/fafsa4c/?locale=en_US#/landing

3

Thank you for all useful links!
Additional questions -

  • I have to fill it out starting from Oct 1 2019, not earlier, correct? (10/1/19 is the start date, not the due date?)
  • Is FAFSA meant for all the colleges she will apply, or do we have to fill out several times - for each desired college? (She ll apply for 5 UCs)

Thank you again for help and for clarifications.

4

10/1 is the earliest day to submit. You don’t have to submit that day. First couple of weeks the site crashes a lot so you may want to wait a couple weeks. Each school will have their own deadline. You can google that info easily.

5

Each college has a code you put on the FAFSA and then those schools (up to 10 at a time) get the report. You fill it out with your information as of the day you file, so if you have $1M in the bank on Oct 1 but will spend all the by Oct 10, wait until the 10th to file.

Schools have deadlines for priority financial aid consideration but you can fill out the FAFSA right through the school year to get a Pell grant. It is best to file early as some schools give out aid on a first-come basis.

You are right to start looking at this stuff now. There are a few things you can do now. Your daughter and one parent will need a FSA ID that you get from the FAFSA login pages. It’s simple, but I managed to screw it up 3 times and so it took a few weeks for us to get the numbers and the forms filed. WRITE DOWN ALL THE PASSWORDS!!! Okay let me say it again, WRITE DOWN ALL THE PASSWORDS. Start a file folder for FAFSA and keep all the info in it as you’ll need it year after year. I have it with my kids’ tax forms, some financial aid stuff from the schools, any receipts for school related things.

Make a list of the codes where you want the FAFSA report to go.

That’s a start.

6

Thank you !

7

Thank you so so much for the very detailed explanation! Will do as described :slight_smile: