ArizonaMentor - Financial Aid

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Step 2: Qualifying and Applying for Financial Aid

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Most financial aid is awarded based on your calculated financial need. Your financial need depends on your family's income, assets, student budget, whether you're a dependent or independent student and other factors, as determined by the information supplied on your FAFSA. It is the difference between what it will cost you to attend a particular college, known as your cost of attendance (or student budget), and what you and your family can pay toward those costs, known as your expected family contribution, or EFC.

Dependent or Independent?
Expected Family Contribution
Federal Eligibility
How Do I Apply?
Financial Need
Cost of Attendance
Financial Aid Awards
Evaluating Your Financial Aid Offers

Dependent or Independent?
Whether you're a dependent or an independent student is key to establishing your financial aid eligibility and determining the types and amounts of aid you may receive. Your dependency status depends on your answers to certain questions on the FAFSA — not whether your parents list you as a dependent on their tax return or if you live on your own. If you are your parents' dependent, your parents' ability to contribute to your college expenses is considered. If you're independent of your parents, you'll be evaluated on your own — your parents' income or assets won't be considered for most financial aid. (If you're married, your spouse's income and assets will be considered along with yours.)

You're considered an independent student if at least one of these describes you:

You are over 24 years old.

Both your parents are deceased, or you are a ward or dependent of the court, or were one until age 18.

You have children or legal dependents, other than a spouse, who receive more than half their support from you.

You are enrolled in a graduate or professional program.

You are married as of the date you file your FAFSA.

You are a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, or you attended a U.S. military academy and were released under a condition other than dishonorable.

You may also have special circumstances that qualify you as an independent student. If you believe you do, they must be documented by a financial aid administrator.

If you're a dependent student, your parents must provide their financial information on your FAFSA. If your parents are divorced or separated, read the FAFSA instructions for guidance on which parental financial information to report.

For private scholarships, you may need to provide information on your parents' finances, whether or not you're a dependent student.

Expected Family Contribution
The information you provide on your FAFSA is used to estimate your expected family contribution, or EFC — the amount of money that you and your parents can reasonably contribute toward your education. Your EFC is determined by a federal formula, using the information you provided on your FAFSA.

For dependent students, the following criteria are considered in calculating expected family contribution:

Your income and your parents' income

Your assets and your parents' assets

The age of your older parent living in your household

The number of children and other dependents in your family

The number of siblings in college

Your parents' state of legal residence

If you're an independent student, your EFC will be based on:

Your income and assets, and your spouse's, if married

The number of children and other dependents in your family

The number of family members in college during the coming academic year

Your state of legal residence

Federal Eligibility
For most federal aid, you must:

Demonstrate financial need (except for the unsubsidized Stafford student loan and PLUS loan for parents)

Have a high school diploma or GED certificate, pass a test approved by the U.S. Department of Education, or complete a high school education in a home-school setting approved by your state

Be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen

Enroll as a regular student in an eligible or certificate program approved by the U.S. Department of Education (correspondence or online courses must be part of a degree program)

Have a valid Social Security number (except for students from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia or the Republic of Palau)

Maintain satisfactory academic progress once in school

If you have been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs, you may not be eligible for federal financial aid. You can regain your eligibility by completing a drug rehabilitation program. To learn more, call 800.433.3243.

How Do I Apply?
To apply for federal or state aid, you'll need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the FAFSA. Whether you apply online or on paper, it's free. Many colleges also use the FAFSA for their student aid programs. Click here for tips to completing the FAFSA successfully.

Within three weeks of filing the FAFSA, or much sooner if you file online, you'll receive your Student Aid Report, or SAR. (If you file online and provide an e-mail address, you'll receive your SAR by e-mail.) The federal government, colleges and state agencies will use the information on your SAR to determine your eligibility for financial aid. You need to complete only one FAFSA each school year.

Once your college determines your financial need, you'll be notified of your financial aid award, including a list of the types and amounts of financial aid you're eligible to receive.

Applying Online is a Snap
The easiest and fastest way to apply for state and federal student aid is by using FAFSA on the Web at www.fafsa.ed.gov. It's available in both English and Spanish.

When you file online, you'll be asked only those questions that apply to you because FAFSA on the Web uses skip logic. Plus, your answers will be automatically edited with built-in prompts, resulting in significantly fewer errors. You'll find help online for each question, in addition to a general help button. FAFSA on the Web also has a chat feature where you can exchange live messages with a customer service representative. What's more, you can now save your application on the Web site for up to 45 days so you don't have to complete it in one sitting. Before you start filling out the application, print the pre-application worksheet that lists the information you and your parents will need to collect beforehand.

Your application will be transmitted to the federal processor within seconds, and you'll usually receive your Student Aid Report within two weeks or as soon as 72 hours if you provide an e-mail address. Then be sure to keep a printout of your FAFSA for your records.

You and a parent can e-sign your application using a PIN, or personal identification number. If you don't have a PIN, you can print, sign and mail the signature page within seven days. If you don't have a PIN or a printer, you can still use FAFSA on the Web. You'll receive an incomplete Student Aid Report that must be signed and returned before your expected family contribution will be calculated.

To learn more, go to www.fafsa.ed.gov or call 800.4FED.AID (433.3243).

Your PIN
You can e-sign your FAFSA using your four-digit PIN. To apply for a PIN, go to www.pin.ed.gov. The U.S. Department of Education will then mail (or e-mail) your PIN.

Your parents can also obtain a PIN. If you filed a complete FAFSA last year, you'll be mailed a PIN to access your Renewal FAFSA. Be sure to keep your PIN confidential.

Besides signing your FAFSA electronically, you can use your PIN to make corrections to your FAFSA information, review your federal student aid records online and access your Renewal FAFSA next year.

Financial Need
Using your student budget and the information on your SAR, your college will determine your eligibility for financial aid, also known as your financial need. You become eligible for need-based financial aid when your own-and your family's — ability to pay is less than your college costs. The college's financial aid administrator will subtract your expected family contribution from your student budget — the difference is your financial need.

	College costs
(tuition, fees, books and supplies, room and board, transportation and personal expenses)
-	Your expected family contribution
(the amount you and your parents can contribute)

=	Your financial aid eligibility

Cost of Attendance
Your cost of attendance, also known as your student budget, includes tuition, fees, books, supplies, housing, food, transportation, an allowance for the purchase or rental of a computer and personal expenses for the school year, as calculated by the college. It may also include allowances for dependent care costs and expenses for disabled students.

Your cost of attendance will vary depending on where you live (with your parents, on or off campus) and the college you attend. If you have small children who need care while you attend college, your budget may take child care expenses into account. If you have a disability, let your college know about any additional expenses that aren't covered by an agency or insurance. Be prepared to provide documents supporting your additional expenses.

To prepare a spending plan for college, visit EDWISE^�, EDFUND's online financial planning guide, at www.edwise.org.

Financial Aid Awards
After determining your financial need, your college will put together your award package. It will list the types and amounts of financial aid you're eligible to receive, a deadline for accepting or declining the student aid and more. The financial aid may include grants, scholarships, work study, loans, tuition discounts, fee waivers or other types of assistance.

When you apply to more than one college, your financial aid offers may vary. Your family's out-of-pocket expenses also may differ from college to college because both student budgets and financial aid offers differ. Carefully evaluate all offers.

Evaluating Your Financial Aid Offers
Carefully evaluate all offers. Using the worksheet provided below, do a side-by-side comparison of each college's offer to determine what it will cost you to attend.

When comparing offers, here are some things to consider:

What is your total student budget and how much are you and your family expected to pay?

How much is being offered in grants and scholarships? Are they renewable? What are the terms and conditions? For example, some colleges require scholarship recipients to maintain a certain grade point average.

If grants or scholarships don't cover your total calculated financial need, can you earn the remaining balance or do you need to borrow?

How much loan aid is offered? Are the loans subsidized or unsubsidized? What are the terms and conditions of each loan? If you don't know, check with the college's financial aid office.

Worksheet for evaluating financial aid offers.

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