We had completed my FAFSA profile with everything filled in during early January, only to find out that we did the wrong year (2014-2015 instead of 2015-2016). Then, we kind of forgot about it after a while, only to realize that a lot of my colleges had early February deadlines that were impossible for us to meet at that point. It is now March and we literally just submitted the application to some of those schools whose deadlines we already passed. Does this mean that the school won’t even look at our FAFSA application for consideration? What does the deadline mean, really?
You may still get some loan, but the scholarship/grant money may run out even if you are eligible to.
The deadline for federal aid isn’t until June 2016. Some schools set ‘priority’ deadlines and award discretionary amounts based on that filing date (SEOG funds, school awards, maybe a state award). The school will look at it and process it for Pell grant funds and Stafford loans. They may also still consider you for other awards.
I’d call and tell them what happened, that you filled out the wrong year but that you’ve completed it now. Maybe they’ll take pity on you.
I’m confused…you did a FAFSA in January but did the wrong one. But you say you weren’t ready to do it by a February deadlone? That makes no sense.
But whatever. Submit it now. Like right now.
If you are eligible for Pell grants, you will get that. Stafford loans are OK too. However, FSEOG (supplemental grants), Perkins Loans and federal work study may or may not be available. As for institutional aid (aid given out by the college) that’s unpredictable. Did you find out if any of your schools ask for CSS Profile or other applications?
Boston College - for example requires PROFILE by November 16, 2014 for Early action, as you’ve stated you are in other threads.
They also wanted a copy of your parents 2013 tax forms & w-2, by Jan 1, 2015.
That is possibly what mixed you up about FAFSA.
They wanted FAFSA by Feb 1, 2015.
You should still be eligible for Direct loans & Pell grants, but on time aid packages will be processed first.
You could call, but it is now March & you’ve missed the deadline by over a month.
Actually in January would last year’s FAFSA even be available? I thought the system automatically rolled over to the new year.
The federal deadline for the FAFSA is on June 30 2015. The 2014-2015 (last year) FAFSA has to be available until then.
The 2015-2016 FAFSA (the one that people use if they are going to college this Fall) is also up and it’s presumably due in June of 2016 but most schools want it well before that of course.
Ah. Thanks for the explanation.
@thumper1 I did the 2014-2015 instead of the 2015-2016 FAFSA because I got confused. I think we started that one before the new ones for this fall’s even showed up on the account. I had forgotten about FAFSA for a few weeks, and when I checked again in the first few days of February, I realized that I had filled in last year’s. By then, I had already passed a chunk of my colleges’ deadlines for FAFSA.
@DmitriR Most of my colleges that I have applied to do accept CSS. I did send in and complete that on time for all of them, if I remember correctly. It was only FAFSA that was causing me trouble. Will CSS also help me in getting any financial aid packages too? Im kinda confused on this whole thing.
The CSS Profile is generally for institutional aid (aid awarded by the college, which is separate from aid awarded by the government). It’s good that you got that in time, but it’s not possible for us to know if it will help you or not since we don’t know what colleges you applied to or what financial aid they offer. Did you run a Net Price Calculator for your schools? If not, you can do that whenever to find out what kind of financial aid you might get.