The FAFSA Application now available for Upper Cumberland parents, a required document for students to access nearly any form of college funding.
Local Ayers Foundation Support Specialist Vanessa Farris said the application serves as the gateway for federal grants, state lottery funding, and even basic student loans.
“One thing a lot of parents don’t know is you also have to do it for most college scholarships, for the Tennessee Hope or lottery funding, for Tennessee Promise, and even for student loans,” Farris said. “So the FAFSA is going to be required for basically almost any college money.”
Farris said the application process has been simplified this year and typically takes a student only 10 to 15 minutes to complete their portion. Farris said the system now communicates directly with the Internal Revenue Service to retrieve financial data electronically.
“The language on the FAFSA back a decade ago, it used to be kind of higher in complexity, but it is very user-friendly this year,” Farris said. “The language has been cleaned up. Just answer the question and use the help bar if you have anything or reach out.”
Jackson County GEAR UP site coordinator Christie Garrison said the application allows students to see exactly how much eligible aid and free money is available to them in real time. Garrison said completing the form is the only way to determine if a student qualifies for need-based financial aid.
“The importance of the FAFSA is that a lot of students don’t think that they can afford to go to college and upon submission, there’s real-time processing so they can see just exactly how much is offered to them, eligible aid and free money to help them go on to college or trade school,” Garrison said.
Garrison said families should not assume they make too much money to qualify for assistance because the form also unlocks merit-based awards. Garrison said the Hope Scholarship is available to students with a 21 ACT score or a 3.0 GPA, but it cannot be accessed without a FAFSA on file.
“It’s very important they go ahead and complete that FAFSA in case they qualify for the Hope,” Garrison said. “A lot of them won’t know if they have a 3.0 until the end of their senior year.”
GEAR UP site coordinator Kevin Thomas said the application remains beneficial even for students who do not plan to attend a college or trade school immediately after high school. Thomas said having the document finished ahead of time simplifies the process if a student decides to enroll a year or two later.
“These students can also use the FAFSA even if they don’t go to school, say the year right after high school,” Thomas said. “And they decide a year from now or two years, well, they’ve already got the FAFSA done, so that helps them in that regard too.”
Farris said while the state deadline for Tennessee Promise is April 1, many individual colleges set much earlier deadlines in December. Farris said some financial aid is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I always say the earlier the better, but definitely before the 1st of December so you don’t miss any of those scholarship deadlines that require the FAFSA would be my recommendation,” Farris said.
Tennessee Tech will host a FAFSA registration event in October to assist students with the application.
