Learn how you must proceed with your FAFSA application if you plan to apply and study at two schools simultaneously.
If you’re a student, you are advised to sign up for FAFSA on October 1 the year before you plan on getting into college. Then, go to their website and fill out the form there for free.
From here, you can enter up to 10 colleges you plan on attending (the PDF version only has four spaces).
At this point, it is not clear whether you can apply for FAFSA for all the colleges you listed down in the application. For example, you got accepted into more than one school from the list. Could you then get financial aid for all schools?
This post answers two questions: how you can apply for FAFSA for two schools (or more) and receive financial aid for two schools you plan on attending. This way, you can fast-track your education and receive financial relief simultaneously.
You can include more than two schools you intend on applying for financial aid.
Depending on which state you live in, include an in-state public college on the form. If you don’t list down a public college, you will be ineligible for state financial aid. Check here to confirm whether or not you should list down a public college in your state. The U.S. Department of Education will then share the list with state grant agencies for you to become eligible for state grants.
Once done, you’ll receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) from the U.S. Department of Education informing you that the schools you listed in the FAFSA form received your data.
Now, let’s say you want to apply for more than ten colleges or replace one or a few colleges from your initial list. Log in to your FAFSA account and select “Make FAFSA Corrections.” Remove the colleges you’re no longer interested in applying to and enter the school codes of the new colleges you’re interested in.
After submitting the corrections, expect to receive an updated copy of your SAR. From here, you can receive new relevant information about the schools you’re applying for financial aid and your status on each.
Regarding the schools you removed from the list, you will no longer receive new information from them. However, they still have the data you sent over to them via your FAFSA form.
You may be deleting the schools from your updated FAFSA information, you are not deleting the information you sent to them from their system.
Let’s say you got accepted into two schools you included in your FAFSA and wish to pursue your education in both.
Ideally, you can only receive financial relief for one college at a time. But, as a compromise, you can set up a consortium agreement between the schools you plan on attending. This enables you to combine the credits from both to determine your eligibility for financial aid.
To do this, you must fill out the consortium agreement form from both colleges. The agreement is only valid for one term. Once the term expires, you must fill out a new form for the next term.
When filling out the forms, determine which between the two is your home and host school. The home school provides you with financial aid, and it’s up to you to use the money to pay your host school.
Each college has its own consortium agreement rules and regulations. Be sure to read up on the colleges you’ll be attending to know the exact steps on how to proceed.
A much simpler but more expensive way to both for both schools is by borrowing from private lenders. They require a less strenuous process for securing loans for your education but be prepared to pay premium rates.
Consider educating yourself first with the pros and cons of borrowing from private lenders before you proceed with this option.
Applying for FAFSA two schools or more is not the real problem here—receiving the financial aid to pay for both schools is. Depending on the schools you’ll be attending, you must check out their consortium agreements and go to which one makes the most sense to you.
If not, there are always private lenders waiting on the wings to help fulfill your potential.
What to know which is the best private lender for you? BestStudentLoan.com has the resources to help you make the right choice.
Comments are closed.
Recent Comment