First time filling out FAFSA

Paying for College
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<p>My daughter will be starting college this fall, and we're filling out the FAFSA for the first time. There are a lot of pay services out there that want us to pay them for help with it but it seems as though we should be able to do it ourselves. Any hints or suggestions anyone could share would really be appreciated. Also on the online form, it says it's optional to list your assets. Any ideas why?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>First of all, be sure you are not at the fafsa.com website. You want the ed.gov one. Secondly, once we had all our numbers together, in terms of income, taxes paid, deductions, etc, it took maybe 1/2 an hour to do (but I rechecked everything multiple times and was really nit-picky!). This was my first time filling out the FAFSA, but all I could think after was “Thank goodness I didn’t spend money to have someone else do it, or help me.” It was not hard, and it tells you which line of your tax return to look on.
My advice is to do your taxes first, even if you have to estimate numbers you don’t have exact figures on yet. That way you have your lines on the tax forms to refer to. We use Turbo Tax, so that helps. After you do the taxes, the Fafsa is easier. I found the CSS/Profile to be the longest and hardest to do. That one asks for a lot more information.
Regarding assets, I think it’s only optional if you meet certain requirements…someone else will have better info for you. Oh, and be sure you have the required PIN number so that you can electronically sign the FAFSA. You need one for parents, and one for the student. Also found at the ed.gov site.</p>

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<p>It’s likely because you qualified for the Simplied EFC formula, which excludes assets from the calculation. Some state aid programs still require FAFSA asset reporting, but some don’t…not sure where you are but if you’d care to list your state perhaps someone here can tell you.</p>

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<p>It’s our first time as well and even though it seems overwhelming it’s really not so bad! This link is to the line by line instructions</p>

<p><a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/2011-12CTF.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/2011-12CTF.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;