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Table of contents (click a hyperlink to be redirected in the document):

Application + Eligibility:
⏳ Important Deadlines:
🗺️ FAFSA time-zones MAP:
✅ FAFSA Checkoff List:
❗FAFSA Pro tips:
🤔 First-come first-serve?
💰 FAFSA tips to get MORE money + filling it out properly:
Filling Out FAFSA as a non-Citizen
Is an SSN Needed for FAFSA from Parent(s)?
Benefits of filing as an INDEPENDENT on the FAFSA:
FAFSA dependency override appeal
🚨FAFSA Changes for the 2024-2025 Form & Beyond (sources):
💸 Appeal for more financial aid
💸 Need help with scholarships?
Application + Eligibility:

● First, make sure that you are eligible and that the deadline hasn’t already passed.
● FAFSA application → https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa

⏳ Important Deadlines:
● OPENS: Every year October 1st, 20xx
○ Exception for the 2024-2025 FAFSA which opens December 2023
● CLOSES: Must be submitted by June 30th, 20xx (typically right before midnight)
● Any corrections or updates must be submitted by September, 20xx
○ Exact date changes year-to-year, so check here for an up-to-date deadline
● IMPORTANT: There are also state deadlines
● College deadlines: Each college may have its own deadline. So, individually check with
the college(s) you’re interested in attending or currently attending.

🗺️ FAFSA time-zones MAP:

Check to see when your state is expected to OPEN up the FAFSA application:
Check to see when your state is expected to CLOSE the FAFSA application. Again, state
deadlines can be found here.

✅ FAFSA Checkoff List:

If you are eligible for the FAFSA, then make sure you have these things prepared:
❏ Driver’s license / ID number
❏ Your social security number (SSN)
❏ Your latest bank statements or untaxed income records (if any)
❏ Records of income from business ventures / investments (if any)
❏ Latest federal income tax returns from the STUDENT
❏ Latest federal income tax returns from the PARENT(S)
❏ If not a U.S. citizen, then your ‘alien’ registration number or permanent residence card
❏ W-2 forms + income records from the STUDENT — make sure you have the right year!!
❏ W-2 forms + income records from the PARENT(S) — make sure you have the right year!!
❏ For example: Let’s say you are applying for the 2023-2024 school year FAFSA.
❏ Therefore, the tax/income paperwork that you will have to show will be from
TWO years prior to 2023, so 2021’s paperwork.
❗FAFSA Pro tips:
● Make sure to have all this paperwork already organized BEFORE the application opens
on Oct. 1st so you can apply ASAP. (Don’t procrastinate like I have in the past).
○ Exception for the 2024-2025 FAFSA which opens December 2023
● Also, have your username/password info remembered (every year my mother and I
would forget, and it takes a while to reset on their website.)
● Sometimes the website does crash when the application opens due to so many applying
at the same time. Just keep refreshing the page or try again the next day to apply!
● Once given aid from FAFSA, remember your SAI number. This will be needed for *some*
need-based scholarships that you apply to. (Many scholarships don’t require FAFSA info)
● Reminder: SAI replaced EFC with the new FAFSA changes.
● If eligible for work-study, answer with YES. You never know when you might need a job.

🤔 First-come first-serve?
Is aid from the FAFSA distributed on a first-come, first-served basis? Learn more from this
helpful article from Mos.com ( 👈 make sure to check them out for additional financial help):
💰 FAFSA tips to get MORE money + filling it out properly:
● File the FAFSA to Get More Money in College ***
● FAFSA for GRAD school students
● Common FAFSA Mistakes
● Maximizing Your Aid Eligibility
● Filing the FAFSA as a PARENT
● 7 FAFSA tips to get the MOST financial aid
● Top FAFSA tips and tricks
● Are dual enrollment students (also Advanced Placement/AP students) considered as
college students on the FAFSA?
● How to Complete the FAFSA With Divorced Parents
● Am I an independent OR dependent student?

Filling Out FAFSA as a non-Citizen

● Refer to this link
● If you do not qualify for the FAFSA, (such as if undocumented) there are alternative
state-aid forms in many states. You can find these within the financial aid toolkit!

Is an SSN Needed for FAFSA from Parent(s)?

Does the parent need a Social Security number for the student's FAFSA® form? (source)
No, the parent doesn't need a Social Security number (SSN) for the student's FAFSA® form.
Starting in December 2023, parents will be able to get an FSA ID (account username and
password) without having an SSN.

The parents' immigration status is not taken into account in determining the student's eligibility
for federal student aid. When the FAFSA form is processed, only the student's citizenship or
eligible noncitizen eligibility is verified.

On the updated 2024–25 FAFSA form, if the parent is completing their own section and doesn't
have an SSN, the SSN will be blank or prefilled with an assigned pseudo-SSN. On the previous
2023–24 FAFSA form, if a parent doesn't have an SSN, the parent must enter all zeros without
dashes (e.g., 000000000).
Benefits of filing as an INDEPENDENT on the FAFSA:

Here’s a little-known hack on how to get more money from the FAFSA. Many don’t know that if
you apply for the FAFSA at 24 years old or older, you can then be classified as an independent.
And WHY is this important? Well, as an independent you don’t have to tell the form your
parents’ incomes but rather just your own (or if married, your spouse’s as well).

So, if you’re in a situation where you know your parents aren’t going to fund your education, it
may be worth waiting till a bit later to finally apply for college and financial aid.

Also, keep in mind that some scholarships may have age limits (like 17-24 for example). This
isn’t the case for all, but just wanted to make sure you are aware before and if you decide to
wait till you’re older to go to a university.

Typing back into independent students — let’s say you don’t want to wait till you are 24 or
older. Well, there are other ways to be potentially classified as an independent as seen below
as long as you answer YES to at least one of these questions:
FAFSA dependency override appeal

Now let’s say that you don’t meet any of these requirements. Well did you know that there is
something called the FAFSA dependency override which means you can exclude mentioning
your parents’ financial information (which in turn could qualify you for more aid)?

Your school would have to approve this, however. But there are some scenarios in which the
override may potentially be processed as seen from FinAid.org:

● an abusive family environment

○ (e.g., sexual, physical, or mental abuse or other forms of domestic violence)
● abandonment by parents
● incarceration or institutionalization of both parents
● parents lacking the physical or mental capacity to raise the child
● parents’ whereabouts unknown or parents cannot be located
● parents hospitalized for an extended period
● an unsuitable household (e.g., child removed from the household / placed in foster care)
● married student’s spouse dies or student gets divorced

In each case, you will need documentation to prove your situation.

● Such as: jail records, police reports, court records, letter from high school counselor
testifying to this, medical records / doctor’s note of parents’ condition, and so forth.
● Here are more examples of potential records to show as evidence for your situation.

You may also need 1-3 personal statements from a professional third party.
● Examples include: the case worker/manager, foster care director, parent’s employer,
landlord, etc.

According to BankRate.com, to get a dependency override for the FAFSA, you will fill out the
rest of form, but skip Step 4 and Step 5 on the form.

After it’s submitted, your FAFSA will not process; so, you must contact your school’s financial
aid office IMMEDIATELY to start the process for the dependency override.
🚨FAFSA Changes for the 2024-2025 Form & Beyond (sources):
Watch my video covering many changes HERE:

● https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2023-03-2
1/implementing-2024-25-fafsa-process
● https://www.csac.ca.gov/sites/main/files/file-attachments/summary_of_changes_for_the_
2024-25_fafasa.pdf
● https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/fafsa-simplification-information/2024-
25-fafsa-roadmap
● https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2023/04/30/fafsa-changes-2024
-25/11760352002/
● https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2023/08/06/fafsa-simplified-202
4-25-what-to-expect/70441059007/
● https://www.edtx.org/what-you-need-to-know-2024-2025-fafsa-changes-and-how-to-prep
are
● https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/your-money/fafsa-changes-college-aid.html
● https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/fafsa-simplification-8-changes-to-
expect
● https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/credit-debt/loans/student-loans/602186/fafsa-
application-changes-are-coming
● https://studentaid.gov/help/students-without-ssn
● https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/how-to-report-info-about-noncitizen-pa
rents-on-fafsa
● https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/fafsa-simplification-8-changes-to-
expect#:~:text=The%20current%20FAFSA%20is%20in,in%20at%20least%2011%20lang
uages.
● https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2023-03-0
7/operational-implementation-guidance-federal-student-aids-implementation-2023-24-fed
eral-pell-grant-payment-and-disbursement-schedules
● https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/how-much-in-pell-grants-can-you-get-2024/
● https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/202425DRAFTSAIGuideSupplemen
tEligibilityforMaxorMinPellGrantResource.pdf
💸 Appeal for more financial aid
Now let’s say that you have already filled out the FAFSA and gotten your financial aid award
letter from the school you attend / school(s) you are applying to.

However, the money offered wasn’t enough.

Here’s what you do.

If the school(s) has/have an appeal process, then try it out. Please note that this may or may
not work — but even so, it is worth a shot.

Make sure you are contacting the RIGHT people. Such as higher-ups in the school’s financial
aid department, your college major’s dean/advisor etc. You may also have to send multiple
follow-up messages, schedule calls, or even physically go to the office (or even get your parent
involved) for them to take you more seriously.

For more information on HOW to do so + a TEMPLATE provided, simply use this link below:
● Appeal for more financial aid

💸 Need help with scholarships?

It is possible to still win scholarships even if the FAFSA doesn’t give you much money or
anything at all. I graduated debt-free with 30 scholarships with little help from the FAFSA.
● Join my FREE scholarship advising group chat
● FREE training: Lesser known ways to pay for college
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