<p>Hello,</p>
<p>If my son is planning to apply early action in the fall of 2012, do I submit FAFSA based on tax information for 2011 or do I wait until the beginning of 2013? Some colleges have February 1st as their deadline for FAFSA submission but how can you possibly have all your tax information ready by then?</p>
<p>Also, do you need to submit FAFSA for early decision or does it all depend on a particular college?</p>
<p>I am utterly confused.</p>
<p>Emily.</p>
<p>If he will be a senior next fall and applying EA/ED then you may have to fill out the CSS Profile based on your 2011 taxes and your predicted 2012 income. After that you fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible after Jan 1, 1013 based on your 2012 returns/paperwork. You ar supposed to ammend your Profile or submit additional information if there are significant changes from your predicted numbers.</p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>300 or more colleges require the College Board Profile, this also has a minor charge to send to the colleges. You will only fill this out if the colleges on your student’s list require this financial aid form. You will fill out the free FAFSA for every college your student applies. Some colleges have their own supplemental financial aid forms.</p>
<p>When your student has their “list” complete early senior fall, it is a good idea to look at each college’s website and take note of what forms are required for financial aid and the deadlines for submitting the information.</p>
<p>For FAFSA, when you file in early 2013 check the “will file” box as tax status. That will allow the FAFSA to process and you can update and resubmit it when you have filed your taxes. You should still plan to file as early as possible that year though as some schools do not consider the financial aid file to be complete until the FAFSA is based on hard numbers and, of course, the awards can and will change if the numbers change. Also, you will not update asset numbers unless you make an error, so have all of that data in final form.</p>