Seniors who are applying for college are now able to fill out and complete aFAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). 

Where do I go to fill out my FAFSA? Students and their parents will need to go to www.fafsa.ed.gov to complete the FAFSA.  It is important the the website says .gov at the end of it.  There is a website called www.fafsa.com that requires students to pay a fee - THIS IS THE WRONG WEBSITE.  The first word in FAFSA is FREE.  The site should never ask you for any money.  If so, recheck your website.                                                                 

What do I do first? Before students and their parents fill out the FAFSA, they should apply for a PIN (Personal Identification Number).  This PIN acts as online signature at the end of the FAFSA. Both the student and the parent will need to apply an individual PIN.  The process takes about five minutes to complete, but about two to three days to process it in the system.  Students/parents can do this while they are waiting for their W2 forms to come back to complete taxes.  

Can I do my FAFSA if I have not done my taxes yet? If students are concerned that their parents will not be getting back their tax information anytime soon, let them know that they can complete a FAFSA preliminarily guestimating their tax information based on last year's info, but they will then need to go back and correct the information when their taxes are complete. See http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/filling-out#providing-financial-information  

What do I need to complete a FAFSA? Go to http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/filling-out#documents to see the information needed to complete the FAFSA.

For what year should I complete the FAFSA? This is deceiving for students because they are currently in the 2012-2013 school year, but students should be completing theFAFSA for the 2013-2014 school year because most of them will not be enrolling until Fall of 2013.