FAFSA Requirements: How University students Can Unlock Financial Aid

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Do you qualify for college financial aid? Rapid answer:?It’s always worth applying.?

The long answer: The list of requirements for need-based aid is extensive, and never meeting some can lose you aid eligibility altogether.

But you’re likely to get some kind of aid if you apply.?More than 13 million students received the help of the $125.7 billion the education department disbursed in 2016. All of those aid recipients began with same first step: submitting the disposable Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

Here are the FAFSA requirements you have to meet in order to access educational funding.

What you need to qualify for financial aid

To qualify for educational funding, you’ll need to:

  • Have a high school diploma or perhaps a recognized equivalency, such as a GED, or have completed a state-approved home-school high school education
  • Be a U.S. citizen or perhaps an eligible noncitizen with U.S. national status, and have a green card, an Arrival/Departure Record (I-94), battered immigrant-qualified alien status or?a T visa or perhaps a parent with a T-1 visa
  • Have a valid Social Security number
  • Be registered using the Selective Service. This is applicable only if you are a male between 18 and 25 and aren’t already on active military duty.
  • Be enrolled or accepted for enrollment within an eligible degree or certificate program
  • Maintain satisfactory academic progress attending college if you’re already enrolled. Standards for satisfactory academic progress vary by school.

On the FAFSA, you’ll have to sign an accreditation statement saying you:

  • Aren’t?in arrears on the federal student loan
  • Don’t owe money on a federal student grant
  • Agree that aid is going to be used for educational purposes only. Which includes tuition, fees and room and board.

If you’re eligible for aid, accept all free money, such as scholarships and grants, then consider work-study options before?taking out any federal student loans.

How how old you are affects your federal aid

Your age may?affect how much help you will get. That is because your age largely determines if you are an independent or dependent student and therefore whose information you report on the FAFSA.

Federal aid programs assume dependent students have the financial support of their parents.

Your age determines your dependency status, which affects whose information you set of the FAFSA.

You’re also considered independent if you are married, an experienced, inside a graduate program or have dependents of your.

If you’re dependent, include both your information as well as your parents’ on the FAFSA. If you are independent, report only your data. If you are independent and married, include your spouse’s information as well.

How you could lose eligibility for financial aid

You’ll no more be eligible for a aid if you cannot satisfy the basic eligibility requirements in the above list.?You might lose eligibility should you:

    • Don’t maintain satisfactory academic progress inside your program, based on your school’s standards. This may incorporate a grade-point average minimum or quantity of credits completed.
    • Don’t fill out the FAFSA each year you’re enrolled
    • Default on a student loan
    • Are?found guilty of possessing or selling illegal drugs while receiving financial aid
    • Were an eligible noncitizen, but your status expires or?is revoked

If you will no longer satisfy the basic eligibility requirements, you could lose the ability to receive more financial aid.

A?specific kind of aid may no longer be available to you if you:

    • Are?no more signed up for a course that makes you eligible to receive funding, such as a TEACH grant
    • Reach the maximum annual or aggregate lifetime loan limits for unsubsidized or subsidized student loans

Even if you do not be eligible for a more loans, you will need to repay any loan you’ve already taken.

What’s next?

  • Want to take action?

    Apply for financial aid using our FAFSA guide

  • Want to dive deeper?

    Learn more about repayment options

  • Want to understand more about related?

    Find out how students overlooked $2.3 billion attending college aid