If you haven’t submitted your student’s FAFSA, you need to do it immediately. But this year, it’s easier than ever to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. We talked to two experts about how students and families can get help filing this form and applying for college and financial aid: Jacqueline Moreno, managing director of college access initiatives at the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and Manuel Talavera, ISAC Corps coordinator.
Interview Highlights
Jacqueline Moreno on the importance of the FAFSA:
“We just like to call it the Free Application -- emphasis on 'free' -- but it is the primary application for all federal aid, most state aid, and I would say probably the majority of institutional and private aid. Institutional aid means the kinds of grants and scholarships that schools give out to students that will be attending, and then private aid is the foundations and other scholarships like that…. The start to almost every process that involves financing college is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA.”
Jacqueline Moreno on how to apply for a Monetary Award Program grant:
“All you need to do to apply for the MAP grant is complete the FAFSA.”
Jacqueline Moreno on how difficult the FAFSA is to complete:
“The FAFSA actually has a pretty bad reputation, and it’s not actually that hard. The hardest questions on the application are actually questions about the student’s plans. The other questions are from your tax forms, and they actually tell you… which line on your tax form to put on which line on the FAFSA. It’s actually panic that makes it harder than the actual form.”
Moreno on how much easier the FAFSA is this year than last:
“This year, since the FAFSA is available Oct. 1… and it uses the taxes that families filed in April of 2016, the taxes are already done…. The Department of Education changed the cycle so that it matches the tax filing cycle better.”
Moreno on the consequences of making a mistake on the FAFSA:
“It’s not like taking a standardized test. If you make a mistake, you can correct it. And almost all financial aid -- it’s need-based, but almost all financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. So the important thing to do is just to get your place in line and complete the FAFSA as soon as possible.”
Mauel Talavera on the ISAC Corps:
“There are over 80 corps members, and a lot of them are first-generation and that helps. We each come from different walks of life and we’re from all throughout Illinois, not in terms of just where we studied but in terms of where we grew up.”
Talavera on how corps members customize each workshop:
“Whenever I hosted my workshops, or at least when I have my corps members host workshops, they figure out what are the needs (of the students attending the workshop). Because a lot of my students, in some areas, already had children, so they had to look at daycare. And they weren’t thinking of that…. There’s a lot more to a college or university to see what they really look like.”
ISAC's text-messaging lines:
(217) 207-3265
(618) 223-6450
(708) 252-3890
(815) 242-4630
(309) 306-7066
(630) 216-4910
(773) 453-9520
(847) 243-6470
ISAC Call Center helpline:
800.899.ISAC (4722)
More helpful tips:
http://www.isac.org/students/before-college/financial-aid-planning/
