How to Avoid 9 FAFSA Form Mistakes

It’s FAFSA season, which is why I’ve been bumping into parents who are grumbling about filing out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

It’s no wonder that parents grumble. The FAFSA isn’t a user friendly document and it’s easy to make mistake. Paula Bishop, a CPA friend of mine in Bellevue, WA., who fills out a lot of FAFSA forms for clients, tell me she’s never seen any parent complete a FAFSA application without at least one mistake.  Yikes.

Here then are 9 mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t include retirement assets on the FAFSA. The FAFSA doesn’t care how much you’ve got in your IRA, 401(k) or other retirement accounts and doesn’t ask. The FAFSA does ask about cash, savings and checking accounts.

2. Don’t leave blank answers. If your intended answer is zero, write “0”  or not applicable. Leaving blanks can cause miscalculations and the application could be rejected.

3. Don’t enter the wrong income tax figure. Provide the federal income tax you paid or will pay based on your 2009 federal tax return — not the tax withholdings on you and a spouse’s W-2 forms.

4. List the most current marital status. You need to state what your marital status is on the day you sign the FAFSA, whether you are married, separated or divorced.

5. Don’t inflate your education. If both parents didn’t graduate from college, don’t list “college” as their highest education  attainment even if they did attend some college.  Plenty of schools treat applicants more favorably if they are considered “first-generation” college students.

6. Don’t forget to list the colleges. On the FAFSA form, you can include up to 10 colleges that your son or daughter has applied. The federal processors will send the pertinent FAFSA information to the schools on the list. You will need each college’s Federal School Code.

7. Don’t assume you won’t qualify for financial aid because your house is too valuable. The  FAFSA doesn’t even ask if you own a house so the amount of home equity you have is irrelevant. The FAFSA does ask about second homes or real estate investments.

8. Don’t assume you won’t qualify for financial aid because you have too much saved in retirement. The FAFSA doesn’t contain any questions about retirement accounts. You could have millions stuffed into retirement accounts and it wouldn’t hurt your chances for financial aid.

9. Don’t type in a wrong Social Security or driver’s license number. Double and triple check these numbers.

Further Reading:

3 Great Resources for FAFSA Questions

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also blogs about college for CBSMoneyWatch. Follow her on Twitter.


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  1. But Virginia has a plan for something similar. It’s kinda’ silly to hold it off. It’s bad for business for one to have an unfair competitive advantage by evading taxes. On one point, they can in fact do it. If they don’t, the burden will eventually make it’s way back to the consumer. Look how invasive the RIAA lawsuits extended.

  2. After reading your blog, I found out I was misinformed about FAFSA, and thought I didn’t qualify.
    Ironically, how information gets misinformed, thanks to your article I went ahead and applied for FAFSA sucessfully.
    I hope to receiving financial aid for my courses soon.

    Thank you!
    Arnold
    Money College Students