The form, one screen at a time

Your part comes first

Log in to studentaid.gov and start the form for the right award year, which the start page labels by its two calendar years. Your name, date of birth and Social Security number come across from your account. Check them anyway, because a typo here can follow you through every later step.

The next screens ask about your personal circumstances, which is where the dependency questions from the last lesson appear. A short set of demographic questions follows, and your answers to those have no effect on aid. After that come your own finances and, if you are dependent, the invitations to your parents.

Tax data and the money questions

Every contributor, you included, is asked to give consent for federal tax information to come straight from the IRS into the form. That consent is required even from someone who did not file a tax return, and without it the form cannot be processed for federal aid. The transfer fills in the income lines, which spares everyone from copying figures off a return by hand.

The remaining money questions are answered by hand. They cover cash, savings and checking balances on the day you fill in the form, plus investments and the net worth of any business or farm. The home your family lives in and retirement accounts are left out, and some families skip the asset questions entirely because of earlier answers.

Choosing schools and handing off

You can list a long run of colleges on the online form, including ones you have not applied to yet, and studentaid.gov states the current limit. Each college on the list receives your results electronically, and none of them can see which others you chose. Adding a college later takes only a few minutes, so list every one you are still considering.

When your part is finished, you sign with your account and the form tells your contributors it is their turn. They log in, add their own details, give their consent and sign. The form goes through only after every required section is complete, and your studentaid.gov dashboard shows whose part is still open.

Saving and coming back

The form saves as you go and signs you out after a stretch without activity, so you can stop and return later. Use the help text beside each question when the wording is unclear, and write down anything you want to ask an aid office rather than guessing.

Once everything is signed, keep the confirmation page or email. It shows the date your form was submitted, and that date is what a state or college checks against its deadline.