Dale Public Schools

The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and is the first step in the financial aid process. A FAFSA is used to apply for state and federal financial aid programs. In addition, some colleges use it to award institutional aid. The application is available at no fee.

The FAFSA is available online starting Oct. 1. Go to: www.fafsa.gov

What Information Do I Need to Complete My FAFSA?

Social Security Number, for yourself and your parent(s) *
Records of income, such as income earned from work and business, child support paid or received and any other untaxed income. If available, refer to the W-2 forms or Federal Tax Return IRS 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ.
Information about assets, such as savings, certificates of deposit, stock options, bonds, 529 plans and other college saving programs; and investment real estate, business and farm.
Driver’s license number, if you have one.
Alien Registration Number, if you are not a U.S. citizen.

Notes

Parent information is required unless you are at least 24 years of age, or meet the criteria for filing as an independent student as described on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Refer to www.fafsa.gov
You must report income and assets for yourself and for your parents(if you are a dependent student) or your spouse(if you are married)
Use income records for the year prior to the academic year for which you are applying: for instance if you are filling out the 2014-2015 FAFSA, refer to the 2014 tax information

Estimates

Estimates can be used to the FAFSA to secure your spot for monetary aid before you have your current taxes filed. To use estimates, use the previous year’s tax information on the form and submit the FAFSA. After you have filed your current tax information return to www.fafsa.gov and click on the choice to make corrections to a processed FAFSA. Input the correct tax information and resubmit the form.

Getting a PIN

In order to complete the FAFSA online you will need to get a PIN for an electronic signature. To receive your PIN visit www.pin.ed.gov. You will have the option to chose your own PIN or have a PIN created for you. This PIN will be used every year to fill out the FAFSA , keep the number in a place where you will remember it. Once a PIN is created with a social security number, another PIN cannot be created with the same social security number. If the student is a dependent a parent will also have to create a PIN. Parent PINs can be used on multiple students if more than one student is attending college.

FAFSA (free application for federal student aid)

All seniors that will be attending college in the fall of 2015 will need to fill out a FAFSA form. You may do this anytime after January 1, 2016. You will need your tax information in front of you to complete all the questions. Every college application will ask if you’ve done your FAFSA. Even if you are quite sure that you will NOT qualify for any assistance, you’ll still be required to do this. Here are some helpful hints:

Students ages 18-23 are still considered dependent on their parents, so you will need to use parent’s income and tax return-regardless if parents claim you on their taxes.

If you are married, have a child that you support, a ward of the court, homeless, or 24 years old, you may file your own FAFSA based on your income. You are not required to use your parent’s income or tax return.

Both parent and student will need a PIN number. These cannot be the same number.

There is NO magic number that indicates whether or not you’ll be able to receive pell or grant money. Generally though, if your income is less than $50,000 you will be pell eligible.

BEWARE of phonies!! If they are asking for payment, you are on a phony website. FAFSA is FREE. Their website is www.fafsa.ed.gov. If you happen to put .com, you’ll be tricked. Their home page looks identical, but after you get to the end (and you’ve spent about an hour putting in information), they will ask for your credit card number.

OTAG and OTEG are taken from your FAFSA information. These are both Oklahoma grants that you can qualify for if you qualify for FAFSA.

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I will plan on doing a FAFSA workshop sometime in early January if I have parents and students that feel like they need help with this. Let me know if you’d be interested.

OKcollegestart.com

OKcollegestart.com-this is a wonderful resource for college, scholarships, etc.

If you go to the home page, click on scholarships (about halfway down on the left side)

Under the “Plan for College” tab you’ll find entrance requirements and a high school planner

Under the “Explore Careers” tab you’ll find career requirements, potential earnings, and a career/interest inventory

Under the “Paying for College” tab you’ll be able to compare college costs and get FAFSA info

Under the “Applications” tab you can apply online to any OK college

Under the “Test Prep” tab you can study for college entrance exams

Under the “My Info” tab you can set up your own profile

ALSO- click on “for educators” on the far right side of the tab bar-go to scholarships

Very good list of scholarships and due dates each month

Ucango2.org

Under the student’s tab, click on college checklist

You can search scholarships by deadline or by category

OKcollegeaccess.org

Oklahomamoneymatters.org

OCAP.org

www.act.org/ccrw/resources

***Also, okcollegestart.com has free practice ACT tests that you can access

Native American Students-www.catchingthedream.org- For more info on scholarships for Native American students.

DALE

Scholarship Information