How To Register for the FAFSA [2023]

Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is an essential part of attending college. This form allows you to access federal and state financial aid you're eligible for, and your college or university may also use your FAFSA info to award school-specific scholarships and grants.

You and your family will need to provide personal and financial information on the form, but a little preparation can make the application process smooth and easy. Here’s what you need to know to register for FAFSA.

Eligibility for FAFSA

Even if you don’t think you qualify for federal financial aid, it’s still a good idea to complete the FAFSA since your state and school may also use the form to determine your eligibility for financial aid.

See More: FAFSA Income Limits and Eligibility

Here are the general eligibility requirements for FAFSA:

• Demonstrate financial need: For need-based programs, you must prove that you have financial need.
• U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen: The list of eligible noncitizens includes U.S. nationals, permanent residents, refugees, and those granted asylum. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are not eligible for federal financial aid, but they may still want to fill out the FAFSA to receive state or school-level aid. The full list of noncitizen eligibility requirements can be found on StudentAid.gov.
• Have a valid Social Security number: Exceptions for this requirement include students from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau.
• Have a high school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) certificate: You’re also eligible if you completed your high school education in a state-approved homeschool setting or if you enrolled in an eligible career pathway program and met the requirements.
• Enrollment in an eligible degree or certificate program: You’re also eligible if you have been accepted for enrollment, even if you have not yet enrolled.
• Enrollment at least half-time: For Direct Loan funds, you must be enrolled at least half-time at your school.
• Satisfactory academic progress: Once you begin your schooling, you must meet your school’s definition of satisfactory academic progress.
• Not in federal student loan default: You must sign a certification statement declaring that you’re not in default on a federal student loan, you don’t owe any money on a federal student grant, and that you will use your federal student loans solely for educational purposes.

Check Out: FAFSA for Graduate School: What You Should Know

How to register for FAFSA

You’ll usually submit your first FAFSA before your freshman year of college, and then renew the form annually for every year you’re in school. To register for FAFSA, follow these steps:

1. Create an FSA ID

Your Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID is the username and password you will use to log in to Department of Education portals, including StudentAid.gov. To create your FSA ID, navigate to the Create an Account page on StudentAid.gov.

To create your FSA ID, you’ll need your:

• Social Security number
• Full name
• Date of birth
• Email address or phone number

You only need to create an FSA ID the first time you complete the FAFSA. If you’re a dependent student (most undergraduates are), one of your parents will also need their own FSA ID.

2. Gather required documents

Once you’ve created your FSA ID, it’s time to gather the required documents for the FAFSA. You’ll need to provide information about yourself, your family, and your finances. Here are the necessary identification documents you will need:

• Social Security number
• A parent’s Social Security number, if you are a dependent student
• Your driver’s license number, if you have one
• Your Alien Registration Number, if you are not a U.S. citizen

Necessary financial documentation includes:

• Federal income tax information for yourself, your parents (if you’re a dependent student), or your spouse (if you’re married). You’ll input tax information from two years prior — on the 2023-24 FAFSA, for example, you would provide 2021 tax data.
• Records of untaxed income for you and/or your parents, if you’re a dependent student. Untaxed income might include:
  • Child support received
  • Interest income
  • Veterans benefits
• Information on other assets owned by you and/or your parents, if you’re a dependent student. You aren’t required to report the home in which you live or retirement accounts like 401(k) plans, but you should include things like:
  • Savings and checking account balances
  • Investments, including stocks, bonds, and real estate
  • Business and investment farm assets

3. Complete the FAFSA form

Here’s how you will complete the FAFSA form — if you have gathered the necessary documentation ahead of time, this process should be relatively quick:

• Navigate to the FAFSA application on StudentAid.gov.
• Fill in your personal information, including your name, Social Security number, and other identifying details.
• List the colleges and schools that you want to receive information from your FAFSA. You can list up to 10 schools if you haven’t decided which you’d like to attend yet.
• Determine whether you’re a dependent or independent student. If you’re a dependent student, you’ll also include your parents’ information.
• Enter all your financial information.

If you need to complete the form in several sessions, you can save your progress and return to it later.

4. Sign and submit the FAFSA

You can either sign your FAFSA form using your FSA ID or by printing out and signing a signature page, which you will mail to a provided address. Signing and submitting your FAFSA online will expedite the processing of your application, however.

If you’re a dependent student, you must have a parent sign the form, too.

Once you submit your FAFSA, you’ll receive an email confirmation if you provided an email address on the form. It may be wise to save or print out the confirmation for your records.

Deadlines for FAFSA registration

For most academic years, the FAFSA application opens on October 1 the year before. For example, the FAFSA for the 2023-24 academic year became available October 1, 2022.

However, for the 2024-25 academic year, the FAFSA application won’t open until December. The application will be shorter, more streamlined, and have expanded eligibility for financial aid, but it’s important that students prepare since they may have less time to complete the FAFSA than normal.

The FAFSA is unusual because there are multiple deadlines you need to track. The federal government, states, and colleges can all set their own due dates, some of which are earlier than others.

Submitting your FAFSA as soon as you can will not only ensure that you don’t miss any critical deadlines, but it can also help you qualify for more funds. Some aid is finite and only distributed on a first-come, first-served basis — which means the earlier you submit your FAFSA, the more likely it is that such financial aid will still be available. For these reasons, it’s generally best to submit the FAFSA as close to the opening date as possible.

Federal deadline

The 2024-25 FAFSA deadline has not yet been released, but historically it's been set in June at the end of the given school year. Remember that states and colleges often have earlier deadlines, so the sooner you complete the form, the better.

State deadlines

You can find your state’s student aid deadline on the StudentAid.gov website. Many deadlines fall between October and May, and certain state grants or other awards may have their own specific deadlines listed.

College deadlines

In addition to the federal and state deadlines for your FAFSA submission, colleges may set their own deadlines. Make sure you contact the financial aid office of the schools you’re interested in attending to find out the due dates you’ll need to meet.

FAFSA tips to maximize financial aid

To make sure your submission of the FAFSA is successful, follow these important tips:

• Double-check your information: Incorrectly typing your Social Security number or misspelling your name can derail the processing of your FAFSA. Before you hit “Submit,” make sure you check that all the information you entered is correct.
• Use the IRS data retrieval tool: Gathering and entering all the necessary tax information can be the most time-consuming part of this process. To speed things up and help avoid mistakes, use the IRS data retrieval tool. Not all students are able to take advantage of this tool, but if it’s available to you, it may be worth it.
• Don’t list assets you aren’t required to: Not all assets must be included on your FAFSA, and overreporting your wealth can lead to less financial aid. Read the fine print about what assets you’re required to include. For example, you don’t need to report:
  • Your primary home
  • UGMA and UTMA accounts for which your parents are the custodian, but not the owner
  • Life insurance values
  • ABLE accounts
  • Retirement plans, including 401(k) plans, pension funds, annuities, noneducation IRAs, etc.
• Draw down assets you do have to include: You might also reallocate the assets you’re required to report, such as your savings account. If you can afford to, you could use your savings to pay off credit card debt or make a lump-sum investment in a retirement account. Actions like this can leave you with less to report on the FAFSA.
• Regularly check your email for updates: You don’t want to miss any important messages about upcoming deadlines or missing information. Monitor your communications and take quick action if required.

After registering for FAFSA, what's next?

Completing the FAFSA is not the end of your financial aid journey. Once you've submitted the form, you will have several tasks still to complete, including:

1. Review your Student Aid Report (SAR)

The Department of Education will send you a Student Aid Report by email (if you’ve provided an email address on your application) or by regular mail. You’ll receive a SAR anywhere from three days to three weeks after you applied, depending on how you submitted the FAFSA.

As long as your application is complete, your SAR will include an Expected Family Contribution, soon to be renamed the Student Aid Index. This number is used to determine your eligibility for both federal and institutional need-based aid. Once you receive your SAR, review it in detail to make sure all the information is correct.

2. Compare financial aid offers from colleges

Your school will send you a financial aid letter, typically in the spring, which will officially outline all the federal, state, and school aid that you qualify for. This can include federal student loans, work-study opportunities, grants, and scholarships. Compare the aid packages from each school you’ve been accepted into in order to determine which will be the best fit for your academic and financial needs.

Make sure you compare apples to apples when you look at the various offers. For example, you may get more financial aid from one school, but if it costs more to attend than other schools, it may still be cheaper to go to a school offering less aid.

Read More: How To Qualify for Financial Aid

3. Accept or decline aid

You don't have to accept all the financial aid that’s offered to you. In general, it’s wise to apply for and accept as many scholarships and grants as you can, since this kind of aid generally doesn’t have to be repaid.

You’re also not required to accept federal student loans, or accept the full amount that you qualify for. Determine how much you need to borrow, if any, and whether to decline any aid offered to you.

If you have maxed out your federal aid and still need extra funding to afford school, you might consider private student loans. While these don’t come with the same protections as federal loans, they often have higher borrowing limits and can be a useful way to bridge any funding gaps.

Learn More: Student Loans: Only Borrow What You Need

4. Renew the FAFSA each year

The FAFSA is not a one-and-done submission: You must renew it each year you enroll in school to maintain your eligibility for student aid.

Thankfully, renewing the FAFSA is a shorter process than the initial application. You’ll simply need to log in to FAFSA.gov with your FSA ID, update any prefilled information that’s changed, provide updated income and tax information, and then sign and submit the form.

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