Things to Remember for the FAFSA

Dear Betsy,

I work in the financial aid office at a school and see some common errors that families make when filling out their financial aid applications. These mistakes and omissions can cause their aid packages to be unnecessarily delayed and can increase the work-load of both the family and the aid office so I’m hoping you can print some reminders.

One of the most commonly missed items on the FAFSA is the untaxed income families need to report by using the worksheets A – C. Unfortunately, if families are completing the paper FAFSA the worksheets are on the last page of the instructions and families never get that far in their reading.

The other issue is that families are missing the fact that they have to sign the FAFSA before it can be valid. Often the student completes the FAFSA on line (www.fafsa.ed.gov) and the parents never get a pin to e-Sign their part or the student doesn’t print out the signature page. Even when the processor sends the Student Aid Report (SAR) back to the student to get the parents to sign, nothing happens because the student is at school and not at home. I know these aren’t questions, but it would be great if you could mention these “reminders”.

Thank you!
Lee