Financial Aid & FAFSA

What the FAFSA actually does

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form that determines eligibility for federal grants, work-study, and federal student loans — and most colleges also use it to decide how much of their own institutional aid to offer. No FAFSA, no federal aid, and usually no school-based need aid either, regardless of how wealthy or not your family actually is.

It opens October 1 each year for the following fall’s enrollment, using tax information from two years prior (the 2026-27 FAFSA uses 2024 income). File as close to opening day as your paperwork allows — some state and institutional aid is first-come, first-served within a fixed pool, even though the federal deadline itself is much later.

FAFSA vs. CSS Profile

Roughly 200 colleges — mostly private and more selective schools — also require the CSS Profile for their own institutional aid, on top of the FAFSA. It’s a separate form, run by College Board, and it digs deeper: home equity, small business value, non-custodial parent finances for divorced families, and more. Check every school on your list individually — there’s no reliable shortcut for “does my school require this.”

Reading an award letter without a calculator meltdown

Award letters arrive in different formats from every school, on different timelines, using inconsistent terminology — which is exactly why they’re hard to compare. These are the terms that actually matter:

Cost of Attendance (COA)

The full sticker price: tuition, fees, room, board, books, and estimated personal expenses for one year. This is the “before aid” number.

Student Aid Index (SAI)

A number (which can be negative) that schools use to gauge financial need — not literally the amount your family is expected to pay out of pocket, despite how it’s often described.

Demonstrated financial need

Cost of Attendance minus SAI. This is the ceiling on need-based aid a school could offer — it doesn’t mean they’ll meet all of it.

Net price

What you actually pay after grants and scholarships are subtracted — the number that matters, not the sticker price.

Gift aid

Grants and scholarships. Money you don’t pay back. Look for this first on any award letter.

Self-help aid

Loans and work-study. Not free money — a loan is debt, and work-study has to actually be earned through a job, not just accepted.

Subsidized vs. unsubsidized loans

Subsidized federal loans don’t accrue interest while you’re in school; unsubsidized loans do, from day one, need-based or not.

The fastest way to compare two award letters: for each school, add up gift aid only, subtract that from the Cost of Attendance, and compare those net-price numbers side by side. Loans and work-study aren’t free money and shouldn’t be treated the same as a grant when comparing offers.

Common mistakes worth avoiding

• Waiting to file because taxes aren’t done. The FAFSA allows estimates that get corrected later — filing an estimated FAFSA on day one beats an exact one filed in December.
• Assuming a high income disqualifies you. Some aid is need-based, but merit aid, specific state grants, and school-based awards often aren’t — file anyway.
• Comparing sticker prices instead of net prices. A $70,000-a-year school with strong aid can cost less than a $30,000-a-year school with none.
• Missing a school-specific CSS Profile deadline. These are frequently earlier than the FAFSA’s own timeline and are set individually by each school.
• Not appealing. A significant change in family circumstances (job loss, medical expenses) after filing can sometimes be addressed directly with a school’s financial aid office — most families never ask.