BY MINDY PIERCE &
JESSICA PALL
Lions’ Pride Sports Editors

Filing for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can determine whether a student will receive financial aid or not from their respective college or federal loans like the Stafford, Parent PLUS, Pell Grant, and opportunity for work study. Once determined, the offered loans and work study money provides sufficient help for students collecting funds for tuition.

While some students are aware of the importance of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), many do not know that to be considered for financial aid such as federal loans, it is imperative to fill out the FAFSA forms every year, and preferably as early as possible to due to its’ first come, first served basis. There are limited funds for each university on their financial aid allowance.

The FASFA form for the 2010-2011 academic year was available on January 1st and is available until March 1st.

“The FAFSA is important because Saint Leo requires all of its students to have a FAFSA on file before financial aid is disbursed to their account. Only in rare occurrences will we disburse financial aid to a student’s account without a FAFSA,” Andrew Strazi, Saint Leo Financial Aid Counselor said.

If the students or their parents have not already filled out their tax forms, it is still not too late to do so. However, it is much faster to do so electronically as filling the FAFSA by paper may take up to three to four weeks.

“When done early, FAFSA is a stress I don’t have to deal with” said Eric Singer, a Saint Leo freshman who receives a federal Stafford loan to help pay for his tuition.

It is important for students to realize that FAFSA forms must be resubmitted every spring as budgets and the monetary amount of financial aid changes every year, affecting the availability for applicants.
In completing FASFA forms, the students need to provide the financial information of their primary caregivers. Students with divorced parents should provide information of the parent who provides the most financial support. Step parent information will need to be provided as well.

FAFSA takes typically a little over an hour to complete, and any questions students may encounter, the following contact information: email (info@FAFSA.com) and phone (1.866.550.5120), can help students get in touch with professionals who can help them with their situations.

Students can expect to receive their financial aid award notice in the spring about a week after submitting the FASFA form; however, for incoming students, their financial aid packages will not be available until they are accepted for admission.

With the recession our country is experiencing, financial aid applicants are excited to rise heavily. Students must take responsibility and turn in FASFA forms early to be applicable for receiving help with their tuition. Remember, deadline for FAFSA is March 1st!