<p>I was looking at the FAFSA and was confused as to when it has to be submitted. It said that the FAFSA for the 2008-2009 school year is due between January 1, 2008 until June 2009. How is this possible? Does this mean you can submit your FAFSA AFTER you complete the year you're applying for financial aid for?</p>
<p>No. Generally summer is included in the financial aid of the preceding year - so 2008-2009 would include fall 2008 through summer 2009. If a student does not attend school till the summer he/she can still apply for aid for the summer up till the June of that summer.</p>
<p>drbig,</p>
<p>There is a large time window for submitting the FAFSA application because there are many schools out there that are non-term. Non-term schools start new students all year long. For example, my institution has a non-term program, in addition to the traditional semester based program. We start new students almost every week…but these students don’t usually know they will be entering college until a couple of months befire they start. They are typically working adults who are deciding to go back to school to finish their degrees. If the window of opprotunity were much smaller, a lot of these students would find it impossible to return to school and finish their degrees.</p>