<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I am a junior but I have a question about the FAFSA.
I know that you submit the FAFSA around January 1st of a student's senior year to apply for pell grants and other government aid. The FAFSA is viewed by colleges as well to determine institutional need based aid.</p>
<p>How is Institutional Financial Aid awarded for Rolling Decision Schools and Early Decision Schools? At these schools the student (ideally) would get their offer of admission prior to January 1st- are you able to access your form prior to January 1st to fill it out for those schools so they have it when making an admissions decision for awarding aid?</p>
<p>How does the FAFSA "get to" the schools that you apply to? Do you have to notify the federal government which schools you apply to so they can "send your EFC" like an SAT Score or is it something more simple like faxing a photocopy.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Many schools will admit early but don’t give you a financial aid offer until the spring. Other schools will do a tentative award letter based on this year’s FAFSA info - but it could change when the 2013 income info is used on next year’s FAFSA. Institutional aid isn’t awarded without a FAFSA or Profile (unless it’s a merit scholarship).</p>
<p>You can usually find this info on the school’s financial aid website. </p>
<p>When you file your FAFSA, you choose school codes. The federal processor sends the info to the schools you choose (via computer). The schools get ALL your info (not just the EFC).</p>
<p>No you can’t access FAFSA before January 1st. A lot of schools with rolling admissions will not make an aid award until long after the admissions decision is made (I think my daughter got her aid offer March or April and she was accepted around November. Been a while though). </p>
<p>Many schools with generous institutional aid will require other forms to award that aid. About 300 schools require CSS profile which asks for a lot more detail than FAFSA. That is available earlier than FAFSA. (Some FAFSA only schools do not offer institutional need based aid, only Federal and State.)</p>
<p>Schools periodically upload student aid reports from FAFSA. If you list a school on FAFSA they will get it when they upload.</p>
<p>For the schools that do Early DECISION…there is usually some other way that they collect financial info so they can prepare a financial aid package for you. Some schools use the CSS Profile, and others use their own financial aid form. Others request copies of the previous year’s tax returns. You would need to check each college for the ED financial aid deadlines and requirements. There is usually an early priority deadline…in November.</p>
<p>For Early ACTION and rolling admissions, these are not binding acceptances that you must accept within a short window of time. You have until May 1 to make a matriculation decision. Some of these schools also have an early priority deadline for the Profile or their own form. But some just have a deadline consistent with regular decision because you don’t NEED the financial aid estimate earlier.</p>
<p>In all cases your FAFSA cannot be filed until January 1 of your senior year in high school.</p>