<p>I filed my FAFSA on January 2 with one college on the list. And I'm not quiet sure of what happens next? Whenever I log in this is what the status says "Current Application Status: Processed Successfully" What's next with my FAFSA process? When will I be advised of how much money I'll receive? Also, I would like to change the school that I've had on there initially but I don't know how to do so. I'm just really confused overall with what's going on. Please help.</p>
<p>Since you have not done your taxes for 2010 yet, you are going to have to go back in and correct all the info you entered that was estimated and thus incorrect. At this time I would also recommend you ADD the additional school code to the fafsa. </p>
<p>The corrected fafsa information will be sent to all the schools on the fafsa at that time. The schools will then as you for additional information for verification and once you turn all that in, you will be sent an “Award Letter” with your aid listed. You are to either “accept” or “decline” each line item to let the school know what you want. </p>
<p>This book has a great step-by-step process of what happens and when.
<a href=“http://www.edpubs.gov/document/EN0913P.pdf[/url]”>http://www.edpubs.gov/document/EN0913P.pdf</a></p>
<p>Add any other colleges you want to have receive your FAFSA info now. Get it submitted to all the schools you’re interested in, even with your estimates, now.</p>
<p>Once you and your parents have completed your taxes, you’ll need to go in and adjust your estimates to your actual tax information… but don’t wait to add the other school(s) until that time. Add the other school(s) now.</p>
<p>As the post above says, after your final numbers are in, and the schools have accepted you, then you’ll receive notice from them about what kind of aid you are awarded. Depending on the school, that could be fairly soon – next month or so? – or it could be more like the end of March/beginning of April.</p>
<p>The FAFSA does not award money, so you won’t be hearing from FAFSA. You will only hear from the schools to which you applied. They get your FAFSA info and they work up awards according to their own financial aid policies. </p>
<p>There is a limited amount of federal aid which you could qualify for depending on your financial need, and that you would be offered regardless of what school you attend, but the school actually gets the money first. They’ll use it to pay your fees directly. The point is, though, that it won’t be coming to you directly. It will go to the school you ultimately decide to attend. And the schools will decide what other aid to award.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I will add schools after posting this, but after I do, what happens? Do they award aid with just the estimate numbers provided? From what I understand, I file FAFSA, then apply to colleges and once I get accepted to a college, they will tell me how much help I’ll be getting? </p>
<p>In short, I’m not really waiting on anything? Because from what I thought initially, I file FAFSA and after a few weeks I am given an estimate of how much I can receive. Please help I’m very confused!</p>
<p>Two things:
First, once your parents’ taxes are done, you need to go in and update your FAFSA estimated numbers to the figures that will match the tax return. You probably will not hear back from the schools to which you’re applying until after you’ve done that.</p>
<p>Second, when you can expect to receive aid awards is going to vary. Mostly people get them in late March/early April. You certainly won’t get anything back from the colleges before you’ve even been notified about whether you’re accepted or not. And even if you hear back quickly on admissions decisions, it’s not uncommon to still have to wait until that late March/early April period to hear about financial aid awards.</p>
<p>So, yeah, as far as FAFSA goes, you’re not waiting for anything that’s likely to happen in the very short term. You just need to encourage your parents to get their taxes done, update your FAFSA estimates --earlier is better than later-- and then sit back and wait a couple months.</p>
<p>There may be schools you hear from sooner than that but late March/early April is typical.</p>