The Free Application for Federal Student Aid opened October 1st for the following 2018-2019 school year.

The FAFSA provides billions a year in federal aid in the form of loans, grants, and work-study funds to students pursuing a higher education. While it is definitely not the only way to start preparing for college, it is a good starting point that serves as a great way to apply for aid, and it’s best if done early on even though the window to apply is open until June 30th of 2019.

According to Collegeboard, about two-thirds of all full time students had some form of financial aid with a majority of it coming from grants and the rest coming from federal loans in 2014-15. Most government aid is based on financial need and not whether or not you make straight A’s while typically scholarships from private corporations like Coca Cola’s Scholar Foundation look at your academic performance. Don’t worry applying for aid shouldn’t hurt your chances of getting into a college.

Even if you think that you might not receive a lot or any aid at all it doesn’t hurt to apply. There are many factors that go into determining the amount of aid you receive like the number of people in your household, number of people currently in college, annual salary, etc. It is easy, free, and if you want to come up to Terry High school on the 24th LCISD is hosting an event to help complete your FAFSA/TAFSAs.