Am I Eligible For The FAFSA?
Short answer: Depends. Starting January 1 of each new year the FAFSA application is open for business. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a special program of one of the offices of the U.S. Department of Education that provides funding for college education for individuals who do not have enough resources to pay for a post secondary education.
Eligibility
Anybody can apply for a student loan but not everybody is qualified to be granted such. According to the FAFSA website, here are some requirements that an individual must meet in order to receive student aid. There are six conditions that a person must meet in order to be granted financial aid.
Citizens of the United States and eligible non-citizens may be qualified to receive financial student aid. Individuals who intend to apply for financial assistance need to have a valid social security number. For male candidates who fall under the age of 18 to 25, they need to be registered with selective service. An applicant should have a high school diploma, a GED (General Education Development) Certificate or pass an equivalent exam accredited by the United States Department of Education. An applicant should be enrolled in or at least accepted for enrolment as a regular student pursuing a degree in an educational institution that supports the government’s federal student aid program. An application should also be free from charges that are connected to the use of illegal drugs or drug-related crimes at the time of the receipt of student aid.
FAFSA and Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
The FAFSA can be used to compute for Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Once an application is submitted, an estimate of the EFC can be printed out. This will happen when the FSA has received all the required signatures and the candidates FAFSA has been processed. The final EFC will appear in a candidates` Student Aid Report (SAR).
The amount of financial aid that a candidate receives is dependent on the applicant’s enrolment status, cost of the tuition fees at the educational institution of choice, the number of years to be spent in school, and the Expected Family Contribution.
Drug use or Drug–related offenses and their Effect on Being Granted Financial Aid
The extent to which an individual who has been found to have drug related problems is eligible to receive financial student aid is dependent on one’s answer to the different questions. An Answer of “No” would make one fully eligible to the financial student aid. The status of the application is not compromised in any way. An answer of “Yes” (partially during the year) would mean that a candidate can be eligible in part for the financial aid. The candidate can become entitled for the federal aid provided that he or she completes an accredited drug rehabilitation program. An answer of “Yes” that also means “Don’t Know” would mean that a candidate is ineligible to avail of financial aid.
If the conviction of drug-related offense such as illegal possession or engaging in illegal drug trade happens after the FAFSA has been submitted, the financial aid administrator should be informed at once. One of the other options could be applying for state aid or financial aid from the school office.
- SOURCE: The FAFSA application – located at http://fafsa.ed.gov
- NOTES: Print the Student Aid Report (SAR) here.