FAFSA Meaning | What is College FAFSA?

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) may appear somewhat mysterious to both parents and students. Filling out a FAFSA form is a detailed, complex, and often boring process. It is an application for those students who desire to apply for state and federal assistance and college scholarship grants. Many universities and colleges, especially the public institutions, want FAFSA for those students interested in getting college scholarships. If you want to get financial assistance, you must submit a FAFSA application form each year.

State and federal assistance is designed to help students with their educational expenditures when their resource fails to cover all cost of education. The financial need of a student is basically the difference between the educational expenditure of a student and the money a family is expecting to contribute.

There are basically 3 types of financial assistance. A college scholarship or grant is the most important type. It is a gift that does not need to be paid back. A loan is another type of financial assistance offered to the students. It allows students to borrow cash in order to cover school expenditures. Loan, along with a small rate of interest, must be repaid within a certain limit of time. The third form of financial assistance is to work. You can set it up through university or a college or with an independent, local business. Employment during college years allows the student to earn money in order to meet their college expenditures.

If you want to qualify for college scholarship grants or state and federal loans, you must fill out the FAFSA. Numerous types of college scholarship grants are available to match leadership, diversity, interests, talents, academic ability, and extracurricular participation. Several free resources help students look for college scholarships. But the first step to getting financial assistance and scholarship grants is FAFSA.