1/15/15

The 2015-16 FAFSA is Now Available

It's that time of year again… time for high school seniors and returning college students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The new 2015-16 FAFSA is now available!

While few students are excited about completing paperwork, encourage them to fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible so they can take advantage of all state aid, grants and scholarships available to them. Remember, some sources of financial aid have early deadlines and require information from the applicant's submitted FAFSA. Students and their parents don't have to file their 2014 taxes before submitting the FAFSA. Check out our post at StartWithFAFSA.org for more information about estimating 2014 income for FAFSA purposes.

There aren’t many changes to questions on the 2015-16 FAFSA, and some new helpful information has been added to the form. The new FAFSA allows students to prioritize the school codes added to their forms. According to the Department of Education, "placing a school that participates in your state's student grant programs first (on the list of school codes) may help you obtain state grant aid." Additional information was also added this year to help citizens of the "Freely Associated States," students with 529 plan accounts owned by individuals outside of their immediate family unit, and for youth who've been in foster care.

To help you spread the word about the importance of filling out the FAFSA as early as possible, check out the resources available at StartWithFAFSA.org and order your free FAFSA Toolkit for Counselors today!

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Penny Gandy
Outreach Services Manager
Oklahoma College Assistance Program (OCAP)
P.O. Box 3000 | Oklahoma City, OK 73101-3000
pgandy@ocap.org | www.OCAP.org