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More than 55% of Alabama high schoolers are eligible for college financial aid, but about 40% of students did not fill out the necessary forms to qualify last year.

Alabama has been working to change that by requiring students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, or the FAFSA. The form opened Saturday, Oct. 1, and graduating high school seniors should fill it out as soon as possible at studentaid.gov.

According to the National College Attainment Network, 92% of students who completed their FAFSA before graduating high school enrolled in college the following fall, while only 51% of non-completers did.

According to state officials, 62% of 48,000 eligible Alabama high school seniors submitted the FAFSA last year – up 10 percentage points from the 2020-21 school year.

“Coming from a low income household, I always struggled with and worried about affording college and getting to that next step after high school,” Sydney Cook, a senior at Ramsay I.B. High School who said completing the FAFSA helped her earn a full ride to Chicago University, told AL.com. “Completing the FAFSA is a necessary requirement if you don’t want to have those worries.”

Here’s what students need to know about the form, and what they’ll need to apply.

1. Know the deadlines and fill the FAFSA out early.

Students should fill out the FAFSA as soon as they can. An early application gives students cushion time if they need to appeal a college’s aid determination.

Students should check for their college’s priority deadline; while the FAFSA remains open until June, many colleges request the document in December in order to begin allocating financial aid.

In previous years, The University of Alabama’s priority deadline was Dec. 1, Auburn University’s was Feb. 1, and Alabama A&M’s was March 1. If you can’t find your college’s deadline, contact their financial aid office.

2. Gather important documents and information.

Students will need to create a Federal Student Aid account online in order to gain access to their FAFSA portal and complete the online application.

Here are the documents you will need to create your account and fill out your FAFSA application:

• Your Social Security Number: If you don’t have access to your number or don’t know where your card is, you can request a new or replacement card from the Social Security Administration.
• Your driver’s license number, if you have one
• Your Alien Registration Number, if you are not a U.S. citizen: Parents will be asked to supply this information too, but there are ways for noncitizen or undocumented parents, or others who do not have a Social Security Number to complete the form, according to Alabama Possible. More information can be found here.
• Your federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned: If you already have filed your 2021 taxes, you may be eligible to import your tax information into the FAFSA form right away using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.
• Your bank statements and records of investments.
• Your records of untaxed income.

3. Have a list of colleges of interest ready, even if you haven’t applied yet or are still waiting on an acceptance letter.

Students should try to list every school they’re interested in applying to. They can always remove a college later. Not listing a college they eventually attend could mean risking financial aid.

Schools listed on the FAFSA will automatically receive results electronically, and then they can use that information to make sure students get aid.

In Alabama, the order of schools listed does not impact eligibility for state aid programs.

4. Your school is here to help you.

Career coaches or counselors are there to help with forms like the FAFSA. Also, Alabama Possible, a non-profit college advocacy organization, has a program called Alabama Goes to College that provides assistance with FAFSA completion. Here’s a helpful video from Alabama Possible about how to fill out the form.

Teachers can also check to see if their students applied.

The Alabama Commission on Higher Education used $1.1 million of COVID relief money last year to track FAFSA completion data at each Alabama high school. If your school has signed an agreement with ACHE to track their data, you should have an account to access those records.

5. Even if you don’t think you’re eligible, it’s still a good idea to fill out the form.

Completing the FAFSA is now required to graduate, though students can request waivers. State officials say the most common reason that students ask for waivers are because they think they don’t qualify.

But it’s important to remember that the FAFSA isn’t just for Pell Grants.

Experts say students are missing out on billions of dollars in free money when they don’t fill out the form, which can also open the door for other kinds of scholarships and work-study opportunities.

“We want everybody to go through the process, complete the FAFSA and see what they may qualify for,” said Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey. “We tell even families who know their children will not qualify for federal aid, to still complete the process because if your child gets to an institution and they want to apply for a campus job or something, then they’ll have that behind them and they won’t have to do it later.”

6. Changes to 2023-24 FAFSA include expected family income, Pell grants and subsidized loan affordability.

This isn’t Alabama specific, but in 2021, Congress passed several changes to the FAFSA form, streamlining some parts of the monster application and changing some terms and grant levels. Eventually, Pell grant recipients will see the big differences in aid amounts.

• The bill restores Pell Grant eligibility to students who are incarcerated, reversing a 1994 rule.
• The bill restores federal aid eligibility for students with drug-related convictions.
• The bill restores lifetime Pell Grant eligibility for many students who were unable to complete their program of study after being victims of a fraudulent college or a sudden college closure.
• The bill eases the financial aid application process for students formerly in foster care and students experiencing homelessness.

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