Hello,
I am a first generation college student as well as a first generation American. Many of my schools’ financial aid deadlines are tomorrow, february 1st. However, my parents are completely unfamiliar with the language of the tax returns (which I believe are filed by a 3rd party) and are not of much help in filling out the CSS/FAFSA. We will most likely not be able to get into contact with this 3rd party (an accountant, I think) until Monday. So, I am seriously stressing out about this!!
Will I be penalized for submitting some of my fin aid forms after the deadline (or send a letter explaining the situation)? Also, our efc is around 0?? (will that have an impact?)
PS: most of my schools guarantee full need to be met, so i was wondering if this might as well have an impact
Thanks!!
Also, my only other option right now is to fill out these forms myself. And I have absolutely NO IDEA what i’m doing!!! should i avoid filling it out mysellf???
It varies depending on the school; if you are late, you may be denied access to or have lower priority for funds that have limited availability. If tomorrow wasn’t February 1 I would recommend asking each school today how strict they are on their deadlines. Hopefully it doesn’t matter.
Is there any reason why you don’t want to try to fill out the FAFSA at least on your own? It tries to be user-friendly and if you have specific questions you can always ask people here. The CSS Profile is longer but plenty of people here have experience with that too. Again, each school will be different as to how they treat a late submission for financial aid but being late is never a great idea if you can avoid it.
Usually schools which are the most generous are more lenient with those deadlines, but still try to file by the deadlines if you can.
If I were you, I’d email each school’s financial aid department right now, explaining your situation & why you might not be able to make the deadlines. They should understand, but you must do that now so that the “sent” date is before the deadline at least.
I think you should do it yourself. If you had given yourself more time…
http://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/fafsasimplification/
^ Yes. You can file FAFSA by yourself, by looking at the tax papers. It tells you specifically which line to look at for every question.
Fill them out based on estimated taxes and get them in by the deadlines. The most important part is to know what your parents made last year and how much they have in non retirement assets.
You CAN do it yourself but note,you need to get FAFSA Pins for yourself and a parent.
Then, as soon as possible, get the tax return information and update/correct the FAFSA and Profile.
^^good point, did you set up your Pins for you and a parent yet?
@purple5780 Are you serious? You couldn’t have filed it yourself?
I’m a First Generation as well and my mother is foreign and does not speak an average English. Even though, I didn’t help her file her taxes, I filled both FAFSA and CSS/Profile. Yes, it was stressing but I was prepared and did it way long before the the deadline. And I also have receive my financial package already.
Yes, do it YOURSELF. Colleges won’t mind because they know that First Generations act very independent from assistance when applying to colleges. Just make sure that you don’t make any mistakes. The calling service for FAFSA is (800) 433-3243 and for CSS it’s (305) 829- 9793.