Most of us already know about the FAFSA application process, especially if you have been in college previously. However, it is important to go over FAFSA, its steps, and how it has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
FAFSA is an application that allows you to see your eligibility for financial aid as a student. It can help determine if you will receive federal work study, how much you can earn under federal work study, federal grants, and loans.
So, what is the first step to applying for FAFSA?
“The first and most important step is to make sure that the student and at least one parent each set up their FSA ID to use with the FAFSA and other federal websites. These IDs are needed to log in to the FAFSA, use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and electronically sign the FAFSA,” said Kiri Glass and Jon Brown, members of Capital’s Financial Aid Office.
The website to create a FASFA ID can be found here.
If you have trouble changing your FSA ID or have further questions on the tool, call 1-800-433-324 for assistance. After setting up your FAFSA ID, you can then log in to your FAFSA at https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa. There are two FAFSA’s that are available right now (2020-2021, and 2021-2022), so ensure that you apply for the correct academic year.
“For the student tax information and parent tax information, you will use the prior year’s tax data,” said Glass and Brown. “For 2020-2021, you would use your 2018 tax filing status and tax return, and for 2021-2022, you would use your 2019 tax filing status and tax return.”
Capital’s financial aid team encourages students and parents to use the IRS data retrieval tool to transfer information over. This tool provides an accurate report of information needed by financial aid and speeds the process up for FAFSA quite a bit.
While most students and parents are eligible to use the IRS data retrieval tool, there are a few exceptions that would make one ineligible. A few examples would include if you file taxes as “married and filing separately,” if marital status and tax filing status conflict, if you did not file taxes for that specific year, or if you recently filed taxes for that year/have an extension on filing taxes. If you are ineligible for the retrieval tool, you must manually enter in all information on your taxes. Having your W-2s and tax returns on hand can be especially helpful.
When using the IRS data retrieval tool, Capital’s financial aid team warns that information must be typed as it is written on your tax return. Abbreviations and spelling matter.
The last step to the FAFSA is having both the parent and student electronically sign the FAFSA using their own FSA IDs. After this, the FAFSA will be processed within a few business days for Capital’s Financial Aid Office to link it to their system.
“Returning students, those enrolled for the 2020-2021 academic year and who anticipate being enrolled in 2021-2022 can begin filing the FAFSA now,” said Glass and Brown. They suggest that students fill out the FAFSA while they are at home on break. They also suggest having the FAFSA filled out by March or April. “We will begin awarding returning students in June/July for the upcoming year,” they said.
There is no deadline to apply and the FAFSA for the academic year 2021-2022 opened on Oct. 1. Students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
There is some state funding that has a deadline for the FAFSA (like the Ohio College Opportunity Grant). For the academic year of 2020-2021, the deadline passed on Oct. 1, 2020. For the academic year of 2021-2022, the deadline will pass on Oct. 1, 2021, so keep an eye for that date.
“Since most processing is done online, [the pandemic] has not had a big impact on the actual process itself. Where we see the biggest effect is the loss of income that students and families are dealing with,” Glass and Brown said. “Since the FAFSA is looking back two years for income information, we get questions about how they can reflect what is going on for them now. Students and parents need to file the FAFSA with the information requested, then they can work with us to make adjustments.”
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) office of Federal Student Aid provided a few reliefs to ED-held federal student loans. Those reliefs include suspension of paying loans, ceasing collections on defaulted loans, and the interest rate dropping to 0% for a total of two months.
According to Glass and Brown, Capital University received emergency relief funding through HEERF (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund). The funds were distributed to students through applying for FAFSA. Capital’s financial aid team has not received any further information on more relief funding for students.
For further questions about FAFSA , do not be afraid to reach out to Capital’s Financial Aid Office. They can be reached at (614)236-6511 or finaid@capital.edu. Their office hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. in Yochum Hall.
