I'm a FAFSA virgin

[matcha]

So, back in the day, my family made a deal with me. They'd pay for undergrad, but I had to cover any additional schooling.

As a result, this is my first year with FAFSA. I filled it out on time, so when do I find out what aid I get or what federal loans I can receive? Should I get be receiving this information before the "big decision", or after I commit?

I had nightmares that I had to go to a bank and beg for money. I hope that doesn't actually happen....

[socnerd]

I've sort of wondered how this worked too.. If my parents are paying for grad school do they fill out the FAFSA with their information and just leave mine off? I mean I really don't have any information to add anyway.

[jenali]

In no particular order:

Quite a few schools require them for internal aid even if you're not requesting/getting federal aid, and they may have a deadline well before the federal date. Check with your school -- I think this is pretty common. Even federal aid info comes from your school rather than a centralized place, I believe.

Also, assuming you fit their criteria for financial independence, don't bother to fill out your parents' info.

[Postbib Yeshuist]

Best advice is to call the Financial Office at the school where yo applied. They should have all your information on file and will be able to give you deadlines, etc to the day.

A word of caution: You can sometimes borrow more than you may need (depending on your financial package, etc). Debt builds up quickly, so even if you borrow the maximum amount, avoid spending it too quickly. There is nothing wrong with saving some of it for emergencies, but I pretty much lived off of mine in grad school (financing trips to the beach, etc). I got out with $30k in debt and, even after receiving $20k in forgiveness, it has been an annoying cut of my paycheck each month for 10 years. Had I borrowed what I needed ( more like $20 over 4 years), I would never have had to pay a penny. I don't necessarily regret borrowing so much because I got lucky with forgiveness. If I had not, however...

[aginath]

It is unlikely that you will see a federal aid offer from your school before you make your decision to attend.

UGA does provide a "preliminary" offer within a few weeks of receiving the FAFSA, but the wording does caution that actual aid offers will not be available until June. I submitted my FAFSA for 09-10 around mid-March last year. I had a preliminary offer in my school email account by late April. My final offer was almost identical. I just filled out my FAFSA for 10-11 earlier this past week and just got my preliminary offer on Thursday. It's fairly close to the same offer I got last year.