FAFSA timeline confusion - Do we apply before or after college applications for junior?

Great question! The FAFSA process happens AFTER you apply to colleges, but during the same general timeframe. Here's a simple timeline: 1. Junior year (now): Focus on college research and prep for applications 2. Fall of Senior year: Submit college applications (typically Sept-Jan) 3. October 1 of Senior year: FAFSA opens for the following academic year 4. October-December of Senior year: Submit FAFSA as soon as possible after Oct 1 5. Winter/Spring of Senior year: Receive financial aid packages The FAFSA for the 2025-2026 academic year will open October 1, 2024. You'll use 2023 tax information for this application. The earlier you submit after October 1, the better, as some aid is first-come, first-served.

I just went thru this nightmare with my son!!! The FAFSA is a MESS this year with all the changes to the system. Basically, you apply for FAFSA starting Oct 1st of senior year, BUT you list all the colleges your kid is applying to on the FAFSA form. So college apps and FAFSA happen at basically the same time. You CAN add schools later if they decide to apply to more places. Just don't wait too long because some schools have earlier priority deadlines for max financial aid!!

A practical tip - start gathering your financial documents in advance. For the 2025-2026 FAFSA (which opens Oct 1, 2024), you'll need: - 2023 tax returns - W-2 forms from 2023 - Current bank statements - Records of untaxed income - List of assets (excluding primary home) And no, you don't need to wait for college acceptances. In fact, many colleges use FAFSA information when making admissions decisions for borderline applicants, so submitting early can actually help. You'll list each college your daughter is applying to on the FAFSA, and they'll receive her information once she's accepted.

To answer your follow-up question - no, you do NOT need to wait for college acceptances before submitting FAFSA. You'll include all colleges she's applying to on the FAFSA (up to 20 schools), and each school will receive her financial information when they process applications. The FAFSA will automatically calculate her Student Aid Index (SAI), which replaces the old Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This is what colleges use to determine aid eligibility.

Regarding retirement accounts - good news! Retirement accounts (401k, IRA, etc.) are NOT reported on the FAFSA. For your daughter's savings account, yes, that will be counted as a student asset, which affects aid eligibility more significantly than parent assets. Student assets are assessed at 20% while parent assets are assessed at only around 5.64% in the SAI formula. One strategy some families use is to use student savings for initial college expenses and complete FAFSA after those funds have been spent. Just make sure any moves you make are well documented and legitimate - no quick transfers right before FAFSA submission.

I tried calling the Federal Student Aid helpline when we were doing my son's FAFSA and spent literally 3 hours on hold only to get disconnected. Then I found out about Claimyr.com which got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in about 10 minutes! They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Totally worth it for getting specific questions answered about our complicated family situation (divorced parents with shared custody). Saved me so much stress!

one thing nobody told us: if ur kid is applying to private schools they might also need the CSS Profile!!! its like a second financial aid form but wayyy more detailed than fafsa. and it costs money to submit! some schools have really early css deadlines so check each colleges financial aid website

Yes, the CSS Profile is required by about 200 mostly private colleges and universities. It costs $25 for the first school and $16 for each additional school. Fee waivers are available for qualifying families. Not every private school requires it - each college sets its own financial aid requirements. The CSS Profile asks for more detailed financial information than FAFSA, including home equity, retirement accounts, and more extensive income reporting. It's used to distribute institutional aid (money from the college itself), not federal aid. You're in the right place starting to research now while she's still a junior! Many parents don't think about this until senior year and end up scrambling.

One suggestion - have your daughter start researching scholarships NOW while she's still a junior. Many of the best ones have deadlines in the fall of senior year, right when FAFSA and college apps are due. My daughter was overwhelmed trying to do everything at once. Also, when you do fill out FAFSA next year, be super careful about the parent vs. student sections. My husband and I accidentally entered our income in the student section, and it completely messed up our daughter's aid eligibility. Took WEEKS to fix and almost cost us thousands in grants.

ALSO! Make sure you and your daughter BOTH create FSA IDs well before October 1st next year!!! You'll need separate FSA IDs with separate email addresses. The verification process can take a few days and if you wait until October 1st to create them, the system gets overloaded and it can take even longer. Just another annoying hoop to jump through but necessary.

I should clarify one important point - while the standard FAFSA deadlines are important, different colleges may have different priority deadlines for their institutional aid. These can be as early as February 1st or even earlier. Make sure to check the financial aid deadlines for each college your daughter applies to and put them on your calendar. For example, College A might have a priority deadline of January 15, while College B might be March 1. Missing these priority deadlines won't make you ineligible for federal aid, but could significantly reduce the institutional aid packages offered.

i was so stressed about fafsa last year i made a spreadsheet with all the deadlines for each school! columns for regular app deadline, early decision/action deadlines, fafsa priority deadline, css profile deadline, scholarship deadlines...saved my sanity lol. happy to share a template if u want!

Don't forget that your daughter needs to maintain her FAFSA eligibility throughout college by reapplying every year. Each year requires a new FAFSA submission. A lot of students lose aid after freshman year because they forget this step or miss deadlines. Also, speaking from experience - if your income situation changes dramatically between the tax year used for FAFSA (2023 for your daughter's freshman year) and now, you can file a special circumstances form with each college's financial aid office. My husband lost his job after we filed FAFSA, and we were able to get our daughter's aid package significantly increased by documenting the change in circumstances.

This thread is incredibly helpful! As another parent with a junior, I wanted to add one thing that my college counselor mentioned - if your daughter is considering any schools that are "Profile schools" (requiring CSS Profile), start gathering those documents even earlier since the CSS Profile asks for way more detailed financial information than FAFSA. Also, I'd recommend creating a dedicated email address just for college/financial aid stuff. Between FAFSA, CSS Profile, college applications, and scholarship applications, you'll get TONS of emails and it helps to have them all in one place rather than mixed in with your regular email. We learned this the hard way when my older son almost missed an important financial aid deadline because the email got buried in my work inbox! One last tip - if you're self-employed or have any complex financial situations (rental properties, business ownership, etc.), consider getting your taxes done early that year. Having clean, completed tax returns makes the FAFSA process so much smoother.

I'm also a parent with a junior and this whole thread has been a lifesaver! One thing I wanted to add that my financial advisor mentioned - if you have any 529 education savings accounts, make sure you understand how those are reported on FAFSA. Parent-owned 529 plans are assessed as parent assets (lower impact), but if grandparents own a 529 for your daughter, distributions from that account are counted as untaxed income to the student, which can significantly hurt aid eligibility. The strategy some families use is to wait until after sophomore year to take grandparent 529 distributions since FAFSA looks at income from "two years prior" - so junior and senior year FAFSAs won't see those distributions. Just something to keep in mind if grandparents are involved in college savings! Also echoing what others said about starting the FSA ID process early - we did it over the summer before senior year and it was so much less stressful than trying to do it when everyone else is rushing in October.

As someone who just finished this process with my daughter last year, I want to emphasize how important it is to stay organized and start early! Create a master calendar with all the key dates - October 1st for FAFSA opening, each college's priority deadlines, CSS Profile deadlines if needed, and scholarship deadlines. One thing I wish someone had told me: print out or screenshot the final submitted FAFSA confirmation page and save it somewhere safe. The FAFSA website can be glitchy and sometimes doesn't show your submission history clearly. Having that confirmation saved me when one college claimed they never received our FAFSA data. Also, don't panic if you make mistakes on the FAFSA - you CAN go back and correct it after submission. We had to do this twice due to some data entry errors, and while it was stressful, the corrections went through fine and didn't affect our aid packages. You're being so smart to start thinking about this now while she's still a junior. Most parents I know (myself included) felt overwhelmed when senior year hit and everything happened at once. Use this year to get familiar with the process and you'll be so much more prepared!

Another thing I learned the hard way - if your family has any unusual financial circumstances (like inconsistent income, recent job loss, medical expenses, etc.), keep detailed records throughout the year leading up to FAFSA. The financial aid offices can consider "special circumstances" that aren't reflected in your tax returns, but you need documentation to support any appeals. Also, I'd suggest doing a "practice run" with the FAFSA4caster tool on the Federal Student Aid website this summer. It gives you an estimate of your Expected Family Contribution using the same formulas as the real FAFSA, so you can get a sense of what to expect and there are no stakes if you make mistakes. Plus it helps you identify which documents you'll actually need so you can start gathering them early. One last thing - make sure your daughter understands that SHE needs to be involved in this process too, not just you as the parent. She'll need her own FSA ID and will need to electronically sign the FAFSA. Some parts of the application require her input, and colleges expect students to be engaged in their own financial aid process. It's a good opportunity to teach financial literacy too!

Jumping in as another parent who just went through this maze! One thing that really helped us was setting up a shared Google folder with my daughter where we kept all the FAFSA-related documents, deadlines, and notes. We included scanned copies of tax returns, bank statements, and a running list of questions that came up during the process. Also, I'd highly recommend attending your high school's financial aid night if they offer one - ours was in the spring of junior year and the guidance counselor walked through the whole timeline with real examples. They also had a local college financial aid officer there who answered specific questions. One surprise for us: some schools required additional verification documents AFTER we submitted FAFSA, so don't think you're done once you hit submit! We had to provide additional tax transcripts and bank statements to verify our information. Keep all your documents organized and easily accessible even after submission. The whole process is definitely overwhelming at first, but breaking it down month by month like everyone suggested here makes it so much more manageable. You're being really proactive starting to think about it now!

As a parent who went through this process with my oldest child two years ago, I want to add one more crucial tip that saved us thousands: create a backup plan for technical issues! The FAFSA website crashes frequently, especially in the first few weeks after October 1st. Here's what I recommend: 1) Fill out the FAFSA application completely on paper first (you can download the PDF from the FSA website), 2) Have all your documents scanned and ready to upload, and 3) Plan to submit during off-peak hours (early morning or late evening, avoid weekends when everyone is trying to do it). Also, if you're divorced or separated, make sure you understand which parent's information to use on the FAFSA - it's the parent the student lived with most during the past 12 months, regardless of who claims them on taxes. This tripped up several families at our school and caused major delays in processing. One final thought - start having conversations with your daughter now about realistic college budgets and what "affordable" means for your family. The FAFSA process can bring up a lot of emotions when families realize how much college actually costs and how little aid they might qualify for. Having those honest money conversations early helps set appropriate expectations for college choices.

This entire thread has been incredibly helpful! As a parent of a junior myself, I was feeling completely lost about the FAFSA timeline, but reading through everyone's experiences and advice has given me such a clear roadmap. I wanted to add one thing that our college counselor mentioned - if you're planning to visit colleges during spring break of junior year or over the summer, try to schedule meetings with financial aid offices while you're there. They can often give you school-specific guidance about their aid processes and deadlines, plus it's a great opportunity to ask questions about merit aid opportunities that might not require FAFSA at all. Also, I noticed several people mentioned the CSS Profile, and I wanted to echo that it's worth checking each college's requirements early. Some schools have CSS Profile deadlines that are actually BEFORE their regular admission deadlines, which seems counterintuitive but apparently helps them prepare preliminary aid packages. Thank you to everyone who shared their real-world experiences - this is exactly the kind of practical information that you can't find in the official guides but makes all the difference when you're actually going through the process!

This thread has been absolutely invaluable! I'm in the exact same boat as a parent of a junior, and I was completely overwhelmed before reading all of your advice. One thing I wanted to add based on our recent experience with my nephew - make sure to check if your state has any additional financial aid programs that have their own deadlines. Some states have grant programs that require the FAFSA but have earlier priority deadlines than the federal aid. My sister almost missed out on a significant state grant because she didn't realize their state's deadline was in February. Also, I've started a "FAFSA prep" folder where I'm collecting all our 2023 tax documents now, even though we won't need them until next October. It's so much easier to gather everything gradually rather than scrambling to find documents when you're under deadline pressure. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences - I'm bookmarking this entire conversation! The tips about the shared Google folder, dedicated email address, and creating FSA IDs early are going straight into my action plan. It's such a relief to know I'm not the only parent who felt completely lost about this process.

Wow, this thread has been absolutely incredible! As a parent of a junior who was completely panicking about FAFSA timing just yesterday, I can't thank everyone enough for sharing such detailed, practical advice. I wanted to add one small tip that our school counselor just mentioned at our junior parent meeting last week - start having your daughter practice with the studentaid.gov website NOW, even though she can't submit anything yet. Just getting familiar with navigating the site, understanding the terminology, and seeing what information they ask for can reduce a lot of stress later. The counselor said many students freeze up during the actual FAFSA process because the website interface is confusing if you've never seen it before. Also, for any parents reading this who might have younger kids too - I'm definitely going to start implementing these organizational strategies (dedicated email, document folders, etc.) with my freshman son so we're not scrambling again in two years! The timeline everyone laid out makes so much more sense now. Junior year = research and prep, October 1 of senior year = FAFSA opens, submit ASAP after that date. I'm writing this on my calendar right now along with all the other deadlines people mentioned. Thank you all for turning what felt like an impossible maze into a manageable step-by-step process!

This thread has been absolutely amazing! As another parent with a junior, I wanted to add something that really helped us get organized early - I created a simple Google Sheet with tabs for each potential college my daughter is considering, and for each school I'm tracking: regular admission deadline, early decision/action deadlines, FAFSA priority deadline, CSS Profile requirement (yes/no), CSS Profile deadline, merit scholarship deadlines, and any other school-specific requirements. I'm updating it as we research schools, and it's already saved us from missing some early scholarship deadlines that we discovered during college visits. Some schools have merit scholarships with December deadlines that don't require financial need - totally separate from FAFSA - but you have to know to look for them! Also, one thing I learned from talking to other parents is to take a "financial aid photo" of any bank statements and tax documents as you receive them throughout the year. That way if you need to reference something from earlier in 2024 when you're filling out the 2025-2026 FAFSA next October, you'll have it easily accessible on your phone rather than digging through files. Thank you to everyone who shared such practical, real-world advice - this is exactly the kind of information that makes the difference between being stressed and being prepared!

This entire thread has been such a goldmine of information! As a parent of a junior who was feeling completely overwhelmed about FAFSA timing, I can't express how grateful I am for all the practical advice shared here. One thing I wanted to add that our financial planner mentioned recently - if you're planning any major financial moves (like paying off debt, making large purchases, or moving money between accounts), try to complete them well before you need to report assets on FAFSA. The snapshot date matters, and you don't want to accidentally inflate your reported assets because of timing. Also, I just started a "FAFSA countdown" calendar on my phone with monthly reminders starting now through senior year - things like "gather 2024 tax docs" in January, "create FSA IDs" in August, "review college aid deadlines" in September, etc. Breaking it down into monthly tasks makes it feel so much less overwhelming than thinking about it as one giant process. Thank you again to everyone who shared their experiences - this thread should be required reading for all junior parents! I'm sharing it with our school's parent Facebook group because I know so many other families are just as confused as I was.