I have seen some schools have preferred deadline of January or February for FAFSA. By the time we get W2 and file taxes, it would be end of January. Is it better to wait till that time or fill up FAFSA using 2013 (and approx) income estimates?
Better to do the FAFSA early with estimated amounts and amend later on. Some schools give financial aid preferentially to early filers.
And some forms of federally funded need based aid have limited funding per campus. These include Perkins Loans, Federal Work Study, SEOG which are all for lower income students. They are awarded on a first come first served bases…based on your initial FAFSA filing date.
Is early filing of the FAFSA more important for lower-income students? Also, is it more important if the student will be attending a public university? How much of a difference, if any, does very early filing of the FAFSA make for non-lower-income students who will be attending private colleges?
The bottom line is to complete the application as soon as possible even if you aren’t confident about the estimates you are entering. The FAFSA awards federal funding, and schools are allowed access to varying levels of that funding so it’s not easy to predict when that funding might run out.