<p>I'm a high school senior who is nearly finished applying to college. Unfortunately, I've barely looked at the FAFSA, and I don't really know much about it. I'm on vacation now, and my dad has some vacation days too, so I've been figuring we'll work on it over vacation. A friend of mine told me that her parents did the whole thing themselves, but she didn't indicate how long it took or what it included.</p>
<p>So my questions are... how draining/time consuming is this? What is the best way to ease my dad into it and not make it too burdensome for him, especially as someone who does not have English as his first language? And what does filling out the FAFSA entail - what should I expect, and what would be the best approach to starting it?</p>
<p>I'm asking this in the parents forum because the FAFSA seems more like a parent thing than a student thing, but I don't want to be inconsiderate about it.</p>
<p>First make sure you and your Dad each have a PIN number. This is required to electronically sign your FAFSA. Do that now - it is easy and is one thing less to worry about later. Plus if you hit any snafus (we had problems with my sons when he first applied for aid - took a few days to sort out which is frustrating if you have deadlines to meet).</p>
<p>make sure you go to the correct govt website.
[Home</a> - FAFSA on the Web-Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/]Home”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/)
there are websites out there that ask you to pay - those are commercial websites, not the correct govt website.</p>
<p>You cannot file it before January 1st. </p>
<p>You will need 2010 tax information and tax returns. Your parents and your own (if you have income). If you have not done 2010 tax returns (which of course you will not have yet) you can enter estimated numbers and correct them later.</p>
<p>You will also need information about assets, real estate (excluding your primary home), investments (excluding retirement accounts such as IRAs). and savings. You are supposed to report their values as of the day you file FAFSA.</p>
<p>I have never found completing FAFSA to be too difficult. If you have all the data assembled it should not take more than about half an hour to an hour.</p>
<p>Go to the FAFSA site and apply for PIN’s for yourself and a parent. First thing to do. It can take a little while to get one.</p>
<p>As others said, the FAFSA for 2011-12 is not available until January 1.</p>
<p>The FAFSA really depends on information in your tax return and your parents’ tax return(s). The taxes do not yet have to be actually completed or filed, but the more info you have from the tax returns you and your folks plan to file, the better.</p>
<p>Then, once you file the tax returns, you go back to the FAFSA and do a correction if any of the numbers change once you actually complete your tax forms.</p>
<p>You will need things like bank balances and interest amounts to do the FAFSA. The forms 1099 with interest arrive toward the end of January, but banks will give you any information you need if you meet with them and bring id’s.</p>
<p>The FAFSA is not as difficult or thorough as the CSS Profile, which you may also have to do. Save everything from your work on the FAFSA in case you need it for the Profile, for a college’s own application, or for “verification,” which is sometimes requested later in the process.</p>
<p>FAFSA website also has a nice worksheet you can complete first…you print that out, and complete it…it will let you know that you HAVE the necessary data to complete the actual FAFSA form. Once you have that worksheet done…it’s VERY easy to do the actual FAFSA.</p>