FAFSA

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid determines a student's eligibility to receive a Pell grant and various other forms of financial aid from the United States government. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that over 4 million students receive a total of $8.75 billion every annually. The FAFSA test seeks to answer the question: are you worthy of scholarships?

Sure, there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn't listen to high school guidance counselors, (q.v. Clerks), but almost all of them will tell you that this is in your best interest. It is a long scholarship, but the web site provides you with a handy-dandy save program that lets you save what work you've done in their database and pick up from where you left off earlier.

The FAFSA is like any other scholarship application, with a stress on how destitute and deserving you are. The following is a run-down of the eleven steps I went through for my recently filed FAFSA:

Login Info
Step One: Personal Info
Step Two: Financial Info
Step Three: Dependency Status
Step Four: Parents' Info
Step Five: Household Info
Step Six: Schools
Step Seven: Final Check/Review
Step Eight: Signatures
Step Nine: Print
Step Ten: Submit
Step Eleven: Finish

It may have been long, but it wasn't very challenging. Please sir, more porridge.

The FASFA is not just another scholarship application. Oh, no. It is the meta-application, without which most colleges will not give you any financial aid whatsoever. This and the CSS Profile allow a university to take the federal government's evaluation of you and your family's financial situaton, multiply what the feds say you can pay by N (where N can be between ~.5 and 4) and provide you with that much money in university-specific grants and loans.
If you do not, for some reason, complete these forms, you are likely to become a financial-aid victim. The councillors are right--It's in your best interest