What Do I Need Before Using FAFSAQuick?
FSA ID
Your FSA ID allows you to log in to a series of different U.S. Department of Education (ED) websites. An FSA ID consists of a username and a password, and each student needs one to fill out a FAFSA. Parents of dependent students will also need one.
Social Security Number
If you don’t have your social security number memorized, it will be located on your social security card. If you don’t have access to the card, you may need to order a replacement from the Social Security Administration – this is actually a pretty simple process.
For students who are non-U.S. citizens—but meet the basic eligibility requirements for Federal Student Aid—you’ll need your Alien Registration number in addition.
The Previous Year’s Tax Records
The FAFSA needs students to report income information from the previous tax year. This will be either your own income or that of your family (if you’re a dependent). You’ll want to have your tax return and IRS W-2 from the prior tax year on hand.
You cannot use your 2019 tax information. Make sure you are not using tax info from the current year. The previous tax year’s income may not accurately reflect your current finances—for instance, if your income has dropped since then.
If that’s the case, you can contact any schools you’re applying to and explain this. You may be able to request adjustments to your FAFSA.
Untaxed Income Records
For many students, this will not apply. But if you have any untaxed income like child support, interest income, or similar things, you’ll need to report these items for the previous tax year, just like you did with the tax records in #4 above.
Assets
The FAFSA requests info on your savings and checking account balances, stocks and bonds, real estate, or any other assets you or your family may have. In this case, you will report the current values of these items (NOT their 2018 values as with income records from #4 and #5).
It’s very common for this category to be misreported by accident, so make sure you are as thorough as possible when listing assets.
Schools You’re Considering
The FAFSA needs to know which schools you’d like to attend. List any college you’re considering, including schools you haven’t applied to yet. Even if you’re only vaguely toying with the idea of applying to a school, you should still list it.
Schools can be removed later, but if you fail to list one, you could miss out aid that tends to get awarded to students who turn in their FAFSA earlier than you.
It’s okay if you later decide not to attend a school you listed – you probably won’t get an offer until later in any case. If you want to qualify for aid, some states may ask you to list these institutions in a certain order.