With all of your college applications in, you finally have time to relax–unless you haven’t completed your FAFSA. Now, it isn’t mandatory to complete the FAFSA, but it will help immensely with paying for college.

The application is kind of a long process, but no one ever said getting money was easy. To complete it, you’ll need one of your parents and their tax information. In order to apply for the FAFSA, you’ll need to make FSA account, which you will use to log into the FAFSA page. If you do not have a FSA account the FAFSA will link you to FSA page to make one, keep in mind if your parents don’t have a FSA account they will also need to make one. You do not need to list both parents on your FAFSA (only listing one may be an advantage to you).

After you’ve completed the FAFSA, you can send it to 10 different colleges you’ve applied to, even if you’ve already submitted your application. If you want to submit the FAFSA to more than 10 schools, first submit it to your top 10, then after you have confirmed they’ve received it, re-submit your FAFSA with the new schools listed.  

WIthin 3-5 days, you should receive an email including your Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR should tell you all the information received from your FAFSA along with how much money you could be eligible to receive.

The final due date for the FAFSA is February 15th, so if you still haven’t done your FAFSA take an hour this weekend to sit down and get it done.