Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Create a StudentAid.gov account

A StudentAid.gov account serves as your legal, digital signature and gives you access to applications and tools. To create an account you will need:

• Social Security Number
• Email Address - students should use a personal email address not their msdr9.org email
• Mobile Phone Nuber
• Mailing Address

Once you create this account you will use for all years in the future so keep your username and password in a safe place.

Parents/guardians who are considered contributors will also need an account. Parents who may have accounts from when they were students will utilize that account and will not be able to create a new account. 

Learn more about your StudentAid.gov Account

Create a Studentaid.Gov account

Identify the Student's Dependency Status & Parents Dependency Status

A student's dependency status determines whose information must report when filling out the FAFSA. 

• A dependent student, will report both the students and their contributors (parents’) information.

• An independent student, will report their own information

  • Most high school students will identify as dependent students

Independent Students: The situations listed below may qualify a student as an independent student:

• at least 24 years old
• married
• a graduate or professional student
• a veteran
• a member of the armed forces
• an orphan
• a ward of the court
• or someone with legal dependents other than a spouse
• an emancipated minor
• someone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless

Please know that if you qualify under one of these situations your college may request additional supporting documentation for evidence on your situation.

For the purposes of federal student aid, the following reasons alone will not make you an independent student:

• You live apart from your parents.
• Your parents don't claim you as a dependent on their tax return.

If you believe that you may qualify as an independent student reach out to Ms. Backer at backera@msdr9.org to talk more. 

Parents

FAFSA uses the term parents to reference a biological parent, adoptive parent, or a parent's spouse. Utilize the Who's My FAFSA Parent? wizard to help identify which parent(s) will be required to be listed as a contributor on the student FAFSA form. 

Each parent identified to participate on your FAFSA form must have their own StudentAid.gov account to access and complete their required sections of the form.

Learn more about dependency status and identifying your FAFSA parent

Gather Information and Documents

The following information and/or documents may be needed to help the student and parent complete the FAFSA:

• Social Security number (and A-Number if they are an eligible noncitizen)
• Parent/Spouse’s date of birth and email address
• Tax return documents, including federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned from work
• Records of child support received
• Bank statements and records of investments
• Records of applicable businesses and income-producing farms
• List of schools the student may be interested in attending

Completing the FAFSA takes most students and famlies less than 30 minutes. When filing out the FAFSA you may stop and save later at any time. 

It is strongly recommend that the FAFSA process begins with the student account first to save time and prevent errors.

Need Help?

If you need help with any of the questions on the FAFSA form, you can select the question mark or info icons on each page for more information about that question. You can also chat with Aidan, the FAFSA virtual assistant, for help while you complete your form. 

Step by Step Resources

Utilize the resources listed below to help navigate the FAFSA application:

Steps for Students Filling Out the FAFSA Form
Completing the FAFSA Form: Steps for Parents

Tips & Tricks for Success

• Adding your High School: When adding Mehlville you must enter the City as St Louis (no period after St) to search for Mehlville.
• Adding Colleges: Enter every college you have applied to, or may be applying to - including technical colleges and community colleges.  You can add up to 20 schools.  You can always make changes to add or delete schools later, but things will be processed more quickly if you add them the first time.
• Special financial circumstances: Sometimes, your or your family’s finances may not accurately be reflected on the FAFSA form because of special financial circumstances. In this case, you should still follow all the instructions to submit your FAFSA form. Then, you should contact the financial aid office at the school you’re planning to attend to request an aid adjustment. Your school may ask you to provide documentation about your circumstances so that they can consider making an adjustment to your FAFSA information and aid offer.

Once you submit the FAFSA, your family’s financial information will be processed, and your information will be shared with the colleges you listed on the form. It will be important that students keep an eye on their email to ensure they do not miss any important notifications from their school.

FAFSA Form Status

Check the status of your form by logging in to your StudentAid.gov account and selecting your FAFSA submission from the “My Activity” section of your account Dashboard. This is the status of your form bring processed by the Department of Education. Only the student will be able to see this information, not the contributors(parents)

Learn more about your FAFSA Form Status

FAFSA Submission Summary

The FAFSA Submission Summary is a summary of the FAFSA data the student submitted. The student will get your FAFSA Submission Summary after your FAFSA form is processed. Look over your FAFSA Submission Summary carefully, make sure you didn’t make a mistake on your FAFSA form, and make corrections to your FAFSA data if necessary.

The FAFSA Submission Summary won’t tell you how much financial aid you’ll get. 

Learn more about the FAFSA Submission Summary.

Making Changes, Correcting your Form, and Updating your Information

You can make changes, corrections, and updates even after your form has been processed.  

Learn more about changes, corrections, and/or updates

Student Aid Index (SAI) 

The SAI is an eligibility index number that a college’s or career school’s financial aid office uses to determine how much federal student aid you would receive if you attended the school. This number results from the information that you provide in your FAFSA form.

The SAI is not a dollar amount of aid eligibility or what your family is expected to provide. A negative SAI indicates the student has higher financial need.

Learn more about Student Aid Index (SAI)

FAFSA Verification

Verification is the process your school uses to confirm that the data reported on your FAFSA form is accurate. If you’re selected for verification, your school will request additional documentation that supports the information you reported.

Being selected for verification does not mean you are being accused of doing anything wrong. Some people are selected for verification at random; and some schools verify all students' FAFSA forms.

Learn more about FAFSA Verification

Evaluate your Aid Offers

After you submit your FAFSA form, the schools you’ve been accepted to will use the information you provided to create your aid offer (aka what determines your out-of-pocket costs to attend a school). 

These letters may not start coming from colleges until late winter or early spring and will depend on when you submit your application for admission, submit your FAFSA, and be determine by each individual colleges timeline.

Learn more about how to Evaluate your Aid Offer