Frequently Asked Questions

Find out why it's so important to file a FAFSA every year of your college education -- even if you think you won't qualify for financial aid.

Try FAFSA4caster if you’re not ready to apply for federal student aid but you’d like an estimate of how much financial aid you might get.

Financial Aid funds are not transferable from school to school. Each school will determine your eligibility for assistance.Also, information doesn't transfer from school to school. If you need your financial aid information (FAFSA) sent to another school, you must include the school code on your FAFSA. You can go to the FAFSA website to make corrections, or call the Department of Education at 1-800-4FED-AID.

The FSA ID lets you access your personal information on certain U.S. Department of Education websites and sign documents such as the FAFSA.

Determine your family's financial situation, know the difference between merit-based and need-based aid, find out what merit can do for you, understand loans, grants, work-study and more.

Contact information for ED staff, programs, No Child Left Behind, and general inquiries.

Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is a term used in the college financial aid process in the United States to determine an applicant's eligibility for need-based federal student aid, and in many cases, state and institutional (college) aid. It is located on the Student Aid Report and Institutional Student Information Record sent after the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is processed.[1] It is an estimate of the parents' and/or student's ability to contribute to post-secondary education expenses. If the FAFSA has not yet been filed, there are a number of calculators on the Web (see links below) that will give a good approximation of a family's EFC.

You filled out your FAFSA® and submitted it. What happens next? No, you won’t get a check in the mail from the government. There’s more to it than that.