While others are left scratching their heads with yet another college type acronym to figure out, families with seniors likely know FAFSA stands for "Free Application for Federal Student Aid". All families with college bound seniors, or current college students, should plan to complete the FAFSA as early in January as possible. Yes, that's ALL, regardless of income. What many don't know is there are several items to take care of in advance of January.

Educate Yourself

A common question I am asked is whether families with a high income should complete FAFSA - yes. In some cases, I've seen these families qualify for need based aid, but more importantly some merit based scholarships require the FAFSA be completed and there are low interest loans for college which require completion as well.

For Greater Cincinnati families, I encourage you to attend LEAP's FREE Annual FAFSA Troubleshooting Seminar (click to register!), with Summit College Funding presenting on December 1st, 2011. We will give you tips on carefully and correctly completing the FAFSA which leads to saving you future tuition dollars. Attending the LEAP seminar should be in conjunction with the financial aid night your high school is likely to host with a local college's representative from the financial aid office presenting. Both seminars are important and have differing information - both important to the process.

Things To Do

Complete the FAFSA4caster to get an early estimate on your qualification for aid and your options. Familiarizing yourself through FAFSA4caster will help you better understand the seminars suggested above and make the process in January less daunting.

If January will be your first time completing the FAFSA, request your required PIN now on the FAFSA PIN website. Don't wait until January when there is a high volume of PIN requests. You may use the same PIN for each year and for each child attending college.

In late December, collect last year's tax return, your final pay stub for the year, investment records, and current bank statements. You'll be ready to go in early January. You should complete your FAFSA in early January whether your final tax return is complete or not. You will use year-end numbers and be given an option to revise with final numbers once your tax return is complete.

Timeliness is Essential

As with all pieces in the college application puzzle, timing is important. Do not delay in the proper steps and timing, or you may end up at the back of the line when your student's college of choice begins handing out money.

Article reprinted with permission by:

Lisa Mader
President, LEAP
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