The 2018-2019 FAFSA 411
It’s October which means it’s the start of the annual college financial aid application season, and it started October 1st. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is more commonly known as the FAFSA among students, is available for the 2018-2019 school year. As many students know filling out the FAFSA is required to gain access to any of the billions of dollars that get handed out each year in college grants, and loans.
This is the second time the application cycle has been moved up three months since the U.S. Department of Education moved up the financial aid timeline. And this year, the process of applying will be different, thanks to some security updates that were made to an online tool designed to ease the process of filling out the form. Last year’s change—allowing families to use older tax information—means the form should be easier for most applicants to fill out, since they’ll have finalized tax returns to pull income information from.
As soon as you submit the FAFSA, review and save the confirmation page. In a few days, the processor will send you a follow-up e-mail letting you know they have evaluated your FAFSA and provide you a link to review your application and resulting Student Aid Report (SAR). Be sure to open, save, and review the results for any error messages they give you. If you don’t receive this follow-up notice from them, the application may not have gone through successfully.
Lander anticipate sending out financial aid award notices for new freshmen in December. For continuing/transfer students, award notices go out in late June/early July. If any additional requirements are needed, we will send you a notice with instructions for logging into our on-line portal, the Bearcat Web.
Lander has an PRIORITY DEADLINE to receive the FAFSA and that deadline will be November 1st. Remember that November 1 is not an absolute deadline, it is a priority deadline. This means you will be considered for several of the financial aid programs that have limited funds and be included in the first round of aid packages depending on funding levels. Some funds are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until funds have been expended. Therefore, the earlier you can submit your FAFSA to the federal processor, the better your chances are to receive these limited funds. FAFSAs submitted after the priority deadline will be processed upon receipt but availability of funds will be limited.
