October 1 has passed and the FAFSA is now open for the 2020-2021 academic year. 

With classes and homework, you might’ve forgotten about free federal aid, but the Spinnaker has your back. Here are a few tips:

1) Keep you and your parent/guardian’s login information in a safe place, in case you forget your username or password. 

2) Do your FAFSA as early as possible to get all the aid you can, because some states and schools have limited funds. 

3) “Customers who are using an Apple device (mobile and/or desktop) may encounter errors on some FAFSA fields if the “smart punctuation” feature is enabled. This feature changes apostrophes and quotation marks to invalid characters that the FAFSA form cannot recognize” according to the FAFSA website.

4) One-Stop Student Services recommends that you finish the FAFSA by Oct. 15. The State deadline for FAFSA is May, 15, 2020.

The FAFSA can be a lengthy process, but the faster you tackle it, the sooner you can feel financially secure for the next academic year.

__

For more information or news tips, or if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact editor@unfspinnaker.com.