I have read in many places on the internet that federal aid is dished out on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis, at least in the case of grants. But if two students were to fill out the FAFSA, Student A on October 2nd and student B on November 15th, and they both apply to an Early Action school with a deadline of November 1st, would Student A be at any advantage?
I ask this because I assume that financial aid cannot be doled out with certainty until an admission decision is reached, at least in the overwhelming majority of cases. If it is so, wouldn’t there be little difference in applying any time before admissions decisions are reached? Please tell me if there is something I’m missing.
The first come, first served aid forms are SEOG, and federal work study. These are awarded by the schools and the schools receive limited funds for these programs.
In your specific example, my family’s experience has been that it does not matter. As @thumper1 mentioned, the fcfs factor is more important for SEOG and Work Study, but even those forms of aid cannot be distributed by the schools until a student has been accepted.
Check the admission dates of the various institutions to which you’ve applied. Any with rolling admissions may have already started admitting students. At this point, I’d be very surprised if any school has begun to deplete its allotment of SEOG and/or Work Study funds.
So, waiting until early November probably will not be a detriment to your chances. And in many cases, late December may not matter all that much. But I would not wait any longer than that, if you are depending on these to fund your education. And obviously, the earlier you do it, the better - just from the standpoint of having one less thing left to do.
They can’t be distributed until the students start school, but they can be awarded based on a list the school can develop when they want to - Oct 1, Jan 1, by when the student accepts the admission offer.
I don’t think Oct 1 or Nov 15 will matter as much as Oct 1 vs. March 1, or even right before school starts in Aug. In the olden days, when the filing date for FAFSA was Jan 1, it really did matter for SEOG. I remember friends of my kids filing at midnight on NYE to get money from UF and FSU.
Some schools use the FAFSA for their own grants, so timing may matter there too.
You just don’t know. If you’re 0 EFC, early filing can improve your chances for SEOG at some schools. It might not make a difference. I figure it’s just wise to file as early as possible, just in case it might benefit you.