Lo and behold, October 1 arrived and we were ready to file FAFSA on the first day it opened. That is why we plan, my friends! Both student and parent must have a separate account and we had created them back in August. The student initiates the filing, fills out a portion of it, then sends the parent a code to join the same filing.
So glad FAFSA and CSS are over!
It was straightforward. We had all our documentation ready since August, so we knew exactly where to look to provide specific information about our family’s finances. It took about 10 minutes. And that’s no joke.
About two years ago, FAFSA linked your social security number to the IRS, so all that nightmare from answering questions wrong went away. I have friends who filed wrong and they went through an entire ordeal to fix it.
Last year, FAFSA opened three months late, in December, and it threw the whole process off. Both colleges and students got a lot of stress out of that situation. Glad this year went smooth (at least for us), despite the government shutdown.
Elite colleges will also ask you to file the College Scholarship Service application (CSS). That was a bit of a process, but we got it done with the help of our accountant and over two days. I am so, so glad these two steps in the college admissions proces are now behind us.
