Hi, my name is Charles and I work in admissions at GMercyU. Previously, I worked in GMercyU's Financial Aid department for four years and have over 10 years of financial aid experience. FAFSA is a term you may have heard of throughout your college search, but you may be wondering. FAFSA is an acronym that stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It is administered by the US Department of Education. It is important to complete the FAFSA because it allows for the opportunity to apply for several forms of federal financial aid that can assist with some of your educational costs. As long as you meet certain student eligibility requirements, you should qualify for some form of federal financial aid from the FAFSA, some students qualify for federal grants that do not need to be repaid. While other students may qualify for a low interest student loan that would need to be repaid after the student graduates or withdraws from school. You could also qualify for federal work study which allows you to work a part-time job on campus. You should be careful of any scams or anyone who tries to charge you a fee for completing the FAFSA. The FAFSA is free. It is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you're having difficulty completing your FAFSA, you can always ask a family member for assistance, your high school guidance counselor or you can contact the Financial Aid Office at any school you're applying to. GMercyU's financial aid office's happy to help at any point in the financial aid process. The FAFSA must be filed each academic year, you can file the FAFSA at any time that it becomes available. However most schools recommend filing it close to when it opens on October 1 of each year. GMercyU's priority deadline for first time freshmen is January 15. Pennsylvania residents will want to make sure that they complete their FAFSA on or before May 1 of each year to determine if they qualify for the Pennsylvania State Grant. The FAFSA on the web takes about 30 to 45 minutes to complete and can be completed online at studentaid.gov. You can also download the My Student Aid app on the Apple App Store or Google Play and completed on your smartphone or tablet. For students who were under 24 years of age, you are required to complete the FAFSA with parent information. All student applicants and parents are required to create an FSA ID and password that will be used to file the FAFSA each year. You will also need to have tax information such as your federal 1040 tax return or W2. FAFSA looks at financial data from two years prior or prior prior year as you may have heard it call, for example, the 2023-2024 FAFSA application, will be looking at financial information from tax year 2021. You can list up to 10 schools on your FAFSA. Once you electronically sign and submit the FAFSA. The schools you indicated should receive it within a couple of business days. The Financial Aid Office will contact you with information regarding your financial aid offer or we'll let you know if there's any additional information required to finalize your financial aid eligibility. If you have any questions, you can contact our financial aid office at the information listed on the screen. Thanks again for watching and I hope this has been helpful.
