FAFSA help??

[LadyInRed]

---

Members do not see this ad.

The last time I filled out the FAFSA was 7 years ago and I think I ended up not being eligible for student loans for undergrad. I'm trying to fill the FAFSA out now for grad school and I have some questions that I thought you might be able to answer.

1) Does the FAFSA just help you get student loans, or is it also grants and scholarships?
2) Even though the federal deadline for the FAFSA is in July, I just realized that the deadline for the state that I will be going to school in is today. Unfortunately, I needed to request a PIN, and it says that it will take a couple business days for them to email me my PIN (why it takes that long to electronically assign me a pin number is beyond me). So I won't be able to file my FAFSA today. What exactly does this mean - if I don't file today, am I not eligible for any aid? Or am I just not eligible for state aid, but could get federal aid? Can I file late? Help!
3) From what I've heard, student loans generally mean that you don't have to pay anything on them until after you graduate (maybe that was just undergrad though). Is the only way to get these student loans through the FAFSA, or are there other means to get this type of loan?

I am a US citizen if that makes a difference. Thank you!!

 

[psychwanabe]

The last time I filled out the FAFSA was 7 years ago and I think I ended up not being eligible for student loans for undergrad. I'm trying to fill the FAFSA out now for grad school and I have some questions that I thought you might be able to answer.

1) Does the FAFSA just help you get student loans, or is it also grants and scholarships?
2) Even though the federal deadline for the FAFSA is in July, I just realized that the deadline for the state that I will be going to school in is today. Unfortunately, I needed to request a PIN, and it says that it will take a couple business days for them to email me my PIN (why it takes that long to electronically assign me a pin number is beyond me). So I won't be able to file my FAFSA today. What exactly does this mean - if I don't file today, am I not eligible for any aid? Or am I just not eligible for state aid, but could get federal aid? Can I file late? Help!
3) From what I've heard, student loans generally mean that you don't have to pay anything on them until after you graduate (maybe that was just undergrad though). Is the only way to get these student loans through the FAFSA, or are there other means to get this type of loan?

I am a US citizen if that makes a difference. Thank you!!

Well, I'm a current undergrad so I've been doing my FAFSA every year for four years now. I think I can adequately answer a couple of your questions, anyway.

1) You can awards of Pell Grants and other kind of federally funded grants by filing your FAFSA I think. I believe that scholarships are usually separate forms because they are funded differently - by private organizations, citizens, etc. Try going to http://fastweb.com/ if you're looking for scholarships. I think a lot of the deadlines are in December or January though, so you probably won't get much for the coming academic year.

2) I don't know about extending your deadline. I would go ahead and get the process going, and then communicate with your school about this.

3) As long as your are in school (full time for sure, I don't know about part time), your payments are deferred. You can even get deferments after you're out of school if you can prove financial hardship of some kind. There are other ways to get student loans, but I don't know.

My best advice to you is to get in touch with the financial aid office at the University where you will be attending. There's lot's of help out there and they will know how to find it!

Good luck!

 

[paramour]

Please note that as a graduate student you are not eligible for Pell grants, regardless of your income. (I know this because I am a current graduate student.)

Furthermore, psychwannabe is correct in saying that you are not required to start paying on any loans until you leave school, unless you drop below a certain # of hours. Keep in mind, however, that there are two different types of loans: subsidized & unsubsidized. The unsub loans collect interest while you're in school and you will be sent a bill every quarter for the interest amount. You're not required to pay it, of course. But, if you do, it helps decrease the amount you end up paying when you're done.

You can get loans through private lenders (banks, etc.) but oftentimes the interest rates are going to be higher than the ones you can obtain when taken out through your FAFSA information.

 

[psych00]

Well, if you don't have hundreds of thousands saved up under your name, I think as a grad student you can get some kind of aid since, when you fill out the FAFSA if you are a grad student you do not have to give your parents' financial information since, regardless of age or anything else the FAFSA says if you will be a grad school you are considered independent. I think the way of determining how much need you have is, they come up with an EFC (expected family contribution) number which basically means they divide the amount of $ you report having, using some formula. From what I understand, if you even have like $100,000 in your name, your EFC will still be lower than the "estimated cost of attendance" for most doctoral psychology programs if you are paying the full cost. So, the form said something about how they determine financial need by subtracting your EFC from the cost of attendance, and whatever is left over is the amount of need you have. What they do with this number then, I am not completely sure how that works but I think it depends on the school's policies such as work-study or other sources.

I do know that most (if not all) schools require you to fill out the fafsa if you want consideration for any aid including just merit based scholarships that aren't based on need. If you know the particular school you are going to, I would contact them to let them know you were unable to complete the fafsa before their deadline and ask them what that means. Usually the financial aid office of the school would know the most, but if they are unsure of something then contact the fafsa contact number - "for specific questions about the FAFSA, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) or 1-319-337-5665. If you are hearing-impaired and have questions, please contact the TTY line at 1-800-730-8913."
or fill out the contact form at
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/contact.htm
Either way, just go ahead and fill out the fafsa using I guess your tax information from this year or if your income was the same as last year's you can estimate using that information. Fill it out, then you can figure out about the school's policy on their deadline, and what you can do from there.

Like paramour said, you can get loans through banks or other lenders but the purpose of getting student loans I think is that they usually have lower interest rates and you don't usually pay them off until you graduate, so you would hopefully have time to work and save up some money while in school to start paying it off later, but you'd have to double-check with whatever school/lender to make sure of the terms of the loan. Obviously scholarships are the best option so search anywhere and everywhere including your local organizations (they sometimes have little scholarships here and there) and just try finding anything that can help. I know it's hard and confusing myself, so just do what you can and good luck

 

[Ollie123]

Are there any advantages to applying for scholarships if you're on a tuition waiver? Mine isn't 100%, but its close so I might be looking for some tiny ones (bout $500 a semester) to cover the rest.

I'm just not sure if there would be any reason to pursue them, aside from being able to put it on your CV. I'd feel kind of bad getting one just for that reason when it could go to someone who WASN'T on waivers and actually needed the money. Would your stipend go up or anything if you got external funding?

I'll probably go for a NRSA to fund my last year or two, but I'm just trying to figure out if there's any reason to pursue other scholarships until its NRSA time.