FAFSA Application A Must For College-Bound High School Seniors

It's an excellent idea to begin exploring your financial options as soon as possible in your senior year of high school if you're thinking about college or career school after you graduate. While most students and parents probably think first of an academic scholarship to pay for college, it pays to consider another possibility: Federal financial aid.

According to studentaid.ed.gov, a student aid gateway run by the U.S. Department of Education, the Federal government remains the single largest source of student aid in America. Grants, work-study programs and loans - these are the three main student aid programs - pay out more than 80 billion dollars a year in aid to high school grads who believe they must learn more to earn more.

Having a good grasp of the three types of aid available from the Federal government is an essential precondition for completing the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. All high school grads must complete and submit their FAFSA application as part of the qualifying process for Federal student financial aid.

Student aid from the Federal government comes in three basic forms: grants, work-study programs, and loans. The different types of aid differ in the dollar value of the aid you receive and whether or not the financial aid has to be repaid. Grants do not require repayment, nor do work-study programs, which pay a wage or salary for work performed. Loans, however, must be repaid, just like a car loan or home mortgage, over a period that ranges from ten to twenty-five years.

There are several types of grant and loan programs within this general three-tiered framework of Federal financial aid. Many people have heard of a specific type of grant, the Federal Pell Grant, which is generally regarded as the foundation of the Federal student aid program. Other less well-known grants include the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), and the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant, a long name that is usually shortened to the National SMART Grant.

There are different loan formats, too. The direct Stafford loan, in which the lender is the Department of Education, is probably the best-known example of this kind of Federal student aid. Based on the loan amount and the payment schedule they choose, recipients of a direct Stafford loan have between ten and twenty-five years to repay the government.

With only a pair of exceptions, your financial need determines the amount of Federal student aid you can receive. The amount is found by subtracting your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, from the cost of attending a college or career school. Your EFC is calculated according to a formula established by Federal law using the information you supply on your FAFSA, including factors like family income, family assets and benefits like unemployment or Social Security. The government notifies you of your EFC on your Student Aid Report, or SAR. You'll receive your SAR after the government has completed its review of your FAFSA application.

If all this sounds complicated, the government has several outstanding resources to help you cut through the clutter. One exceptional resource is the website referred to earlier in this article, studentaid.ed.gov. Another is "Funding Education Beyond High School", a free 60-page document available for download at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Be sure to explore these resources as soon as possible in your senior year of high school if you want to have the best possible chance of receiving Federal student aid.

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