FAFSA Completion Night - What to bring with you | Miami Valley Career Technology Center

FAFSA Completion Night - What to bring with you

10/30/2019

Report to Rooms 167 & 168

Bring the following items to obtain help completing the FAFSA:

Student
Student’s parents (if parents are divorced and remarried, parent who the student lives with, and step-parent from same household)
Prior year tax returns (2018) for both student and parent(s)/step-parent
Prior year W-2s (2018) for both student and parent(s)/step-parent. If you no longer have a copy of your 2018 W-2, you can request one from all employers or request a Wage Transcript from the IRS.
Social Security Number for both student and parent(s)/step-parent
Records of untaxed income
Asset information

Common Mistakes

Students often think that when the FAFSA refers to parents, it only refers to biological parents. It also includes adoptive parents. If your parents are divorced, only the information of your custodial parent (parent with whom you live more than 50% of the time) is needed. UNLESS – your custodial parent is remarried, in which case step-parent information is also required.
Household size includes parents and any children for whom the parent is providing support. This should include any children under the age of 24, who are attending college, and the student whose FAFSA is being completed. It also includes any grandchildren, nieces, nephews etc., for whom are in the household AND your parents are providing more than half of their support.
Parents often begin filling out the FAFSA using their information. To avoid mixing up parent and student data, the student should sit down first, and log in to their FAFSA using their own FSA ID. The student will then fill out all student sections of the FAFSA, as they are presented first. Then, have your parent sit down, and fill out his/her and other household information. Both parent and student sign at the end.
Student and one parent must each have a separate FSA ID that cannot use the same email address.
Students should use a personal email address, not their high school email as this will be deleted when they graduate and the FSA ID is needed to renew the FASFA each year.
Make sure that all sources of untaxed income, child support, workers compensation, and disability, are on hand to include.
Legal guardianship – The definition of legal guardianship does not include the parents, even if they were appointed by a court to be the guardian. Students are also not a legal guardian of themselves. Legal guardianship and legal custody are not the same either. If a student is in the legal custody of someone besides their parent, they need to speak to a financial aid representative to discuss their options.