Federal Student Financial Aid - FAFSA Application The first step in availing federal loans or grants to pay for one's education is by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. This serves as one's application form to the federal government to help in fund one's schooling. The form is being assessed to determine one's eligibility to the available federal grants. In filing for the Federal Student Financial Aid, one must determine his or her type of dependency. The guidelines of the income differ and is dependent on one's stage in life. Ordinarily, most students are considered dependents of their parents. But for graduate or married students, they will be treated or categorized differently since they are not dependents of their parents anymore. There is a survey that determines one's dependency status in the website of FAFSA. The financial aid department of one's preferred school or guidance counselor can definitely assist with the processing of one's application. Applicants should prepare the following information when they are ready to fill out the FAFSA forms: Social Security number, W-2s from the previous year and if possible, a driver's license number. If one is a dependent of his or her parents, he or she will have to provide their tax returns. If one is married, one needs to provide one's federal tax returns and his or her spouse's. If one has untaxed income like that of Social Security income, one needs such records from the previous year. One's current bank statements are need as well. One may need to provide his or her resident information if not a citizen. For those with a business income or investments, proofs are required.

When all the information are gathered, one needs to fill out the application form. Please be very careful when filling out the form since it a single mistake can cost you a lot of grant money. The FAFSA forms can be availed in one's high school, college or at the Federal Student Financial Aid's website. If one's parents have applied and received a PIN, then proceed with the online application. If one does not have a PIN, he or she can still fill out the online form but will have to sign a paper and send it by mail. Should an applicant wishes to use the PIN to electronically sign the document, just visit this site t www.pin.ed.gov. The results will be sent to one's school. The Expected Family Contribution or EFC is based on the submitted FAFSA form. It will be properly assessed to know the rightful grant money for a particular applicant. One's school will contact the approved applicant for a grant or a loan.