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January 6, 2006
Financial Aid Time
It's January! Time to start thinking about filing those FAFSA forms! If you don't know what a FAFSA form is; it is time to start asking questions about financial aid to college representatives or your guidance counselor. Probably 95% of the students that apply to Albright are concerned about what the final cost will be so this time of year is an important one for them and us. Here are some recommendations and tidbits of information about financial aid at Albright, but also other schools:
- almost all schools will need you to file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
- FAFSA will assist most schools in evaluating your candidacy for need based financial aid. At some schools the information may also be used for scholarship evaluation (not at Albright)
- you only have to file one FAFSA (every school has their own code to enter to have your information sent to them)
- you do not have to be accepted to a college or university to send them your FAFSA information, schools will not put together a financial aid package until you have been offered admission, but it's good to have your financial information at the school and ready when a decision is made
- the FAFSA website is www.fafsa.ed.gov
- some schools may require additional documents other than the FAFSA (Albright does not)
- we recommend filing an online FAFSA form; it is easier, catches mistakes and is more efficient
- your family can use estimated tax numbers to file a FAFSA (information will have to be updated when you have completed your taxes
- in PA your FAFSA is your initial application for a PA State Grant
- filing early can't hurt, I'm not saying there will be more money available to those that file early, but there won't be less
- when you have a question, ask for an answer!
More information to come. My next few posts will be about financial aid. Good luck!
Posted by Chris Boehm at January 6, 2006 11:21 AM