This past Tuesday between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., D219 families and their senior students gathered in Niles North’s auditorium for a presentation by Jerry Cebrynski, the Dean of Financial Aid at Lake Forest College.

If you missed the presentation, you can tune in on Channel 16 or visit d219tv.org next week on Thursday.

This Saturday a FAFSA Completion Workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Niles North library. Regardless of whether you were able to attend the Financial Aid Night or not, the workshop will be a great opportunity to complete the FAFSA with aides on-hand to answer questions throughout the process.

If you are unable to attend the workshop on Saturday, you can still get help throughout the process of filing the FAFSA by scheduling an appointment with Mrs. Brines (847-626-2176) for any upcoming Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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For the Saturday workshop or for an individual appointment, you will need to have the following information on-hand:

“Student Social Security Number. Be sure that it is correct!

Records of Income, such as income earned from work and business, child support paid or received and any other untaxed income. If available, refer to the W-2 Forms or Federal Income Tax Return IRS 1040, 1040A or 1040 EZ.

Information about assets such as savings, certificates of deposit, stock options, bonds, 529 plans and other college savings programs; and investment real estate, business and farm.

Driver’s License Number, if you have one.

Date of birth, include the month, day and year.

Month and year of marriage, separation, divorce and other change in marital status.

Alien Registration Number, if you (student) are not a U.S. Citizen.

Parental information is required unless you are at least 24 years of age or meet criteria for filing independently as describes on the FAFSA. Refer to www.FAFSA.gov

For parents who do not have a social security number, put 000-00-0000 on the FAFSA

You must report income and assets for student and parent/s.”
-Taken from the College Resource Center Notice

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In the meantime, here are some key pieces of information from the Financial Aid Night to know now.

Undocumented students cannot apply for aid through the FAFSA and should visit the College Resource Center to find other forms of college aid.

If your parents are divorced, the FAFSA only needs the information of the parent with whom you live. However, if you spend equal amounts of time under the roof of either parent, then you can pick which parent’s information to include.

If the parent whose information you chose to use on the FAFSA is remarried, then they count as a parent and their information needs to be included on the FAFSA.

If you live with a legal guardian who is not your parent, their information does not need to be included and you are considered to be an independent. Only include information on your finances.

If a parent lives in another country, their finances need to be converted into US equivalent dollar amounts.

Personal circumstances between students will vary, so just make sure that you have fluid communication with your college.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents parents from discussing financial aid matters with a college if a student does not authorize it. While authorized and verified parents can speak on their child’s behalf, the bulk of communication is assumed to transpire with the student.

Be sure to check your email regularly. It is the main format that colleges will use to communicate with you.

A big change in the FAFSA is that instead of a pin it requires a FSA ID to electronically identify the student and parent. Click here to learn how to create a FSA ID.

While the FAFSA offers slots to send its information to only 10 schools, you can send the FAFSA to more than 10 schools. Send off the FAFSA, call each school to ensure they received the information, and then delete as many schools as necessary and replace them with other schools for when you send off the FAFSA a second time.

Schools may need the FAFSA by different dates, so be sure to keep an eye out for those deadlines.

It easy to get hung up on accuracy, but it is more important that you submit the FAFSA early with ball park estimates than wait to submit perfectly accurate information.

Besides, you can always use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to reduce your errors. Chances are, if your estimates are close enough, your college will not need you to improve them.

“Apply for your FASFA by February 1st,” College and Career Counselor Allegra Giulietti-Schmitt said. “Years ago the deadline wasn’t so crucial because the state had healthy funding to offer students.”

Today it becomes increasingly likely that the state will run out of money to give the longer you put off submitting the FAFSA.

Luckily, unless your school needs additional forms like the CSS Profile, you only need to fill out the FAFSA and send it off to your schools to receive your financial aid package. Each school will take the FAFSA information and compile all the federal and state aid along with aid the school is willing to create comprehensive aid package.

Packages will vary between schools. Once you receive all your financial aid packages, do not be afraid to appeal for more money, but be able to take the rejection if they truly do not have more money to give.

“After May 1st, all bets are off,” Cebrynski said.

You can negotiate up to the later end of April, but if you do not commit to attend anywhere before May 1st, offers of financial aid and admissions can be rescinded.

You can find additional information about the FAFSA by clicking here and https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/resources#videos-and-images.