FAFSA for Graduate School

Grants are akin to scholarships but have a few distinct variations. While scholarships are primarily awarded on merit by rewarding exemplary academic achievements or other aspects of a student’s life (such as sports or community service), grants are generally need-based and seldom have anything to do with academic or extracurricular performance.

Most grants tend to factor in ethnicity, community, socio-economic status, gender, and student background. For example, grants could be awarded to only African American students, Female students, students from military families, or those from a particular community. Some grants are even specific to a college or university.

Grants are considered “free money” since they do not have to be paid back and can be used for any educational expense a student has to bear.

A plethora of grants are available from various sources. Therefore, it is always advisable to first check with the university one is applying to and understand what grants, scholarships, loans, or other forms of aid may be offered. A FAFSA graduate school application presents an excellent way to determine what aid a student qualifies for.

FAFSA for graduate school is for those students applying for financial aid to fund their graduate studies. Aspiring students must apply for FAFSA to qualify for federal student loans, grants, or scholarships. In most cases, a student applying for FAFSA for graduate school will be applying as an individual and are typically eligible for Federal Direct Stafford Loans and Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans, in addition to Work-Study Programs.

Stafford Loans, better known as Direct Unsubsidized Loans) are available at a fixed interest rate of 7.05% (2023-24 school year)to students without the requirement to show financial need^[1].

With Direct PLUS Loans, a student can borrow an amount equal to the school’s Cost Of Attendance (COA), which includes tuition and fees, boarding, books, stationery, transportation, etc., less any other financial aid received. Grad PLUS Loans attract a fixed interest rate of 8.05% (2023-24 school year)^[1].

One must note that the FAFSA is not a loan application but a system to determine what sort of financial aid a student qualifies and is eligible for, such as scholarships, grants, or loans.

While essentially the same, there are two prominent differences between FAFSA for Undergraduate School and FAFSA for graduate school. The foremost dissimilarity is that a student applying for FAFSA graduate school is likely to be considered independent (from parents) and is therefore required to submit their financial information when applying. FAFSA Undergraduate applicants are usually dependent on their parents and must consequently disclose their parents’ financial information in addition to their own.

The second dissimilarity is that FAFSA graduate school applicants are not eligible for subsidized loans. A subsidized loan starts accumulating interest only after the beneficiary of such a loan has ceased to be a full-time student, a benefit that FAFSA Undergraduate applicants enjoy.

In addition to these two broader differences, FAFSA graduate school applicants can take out more loans than Undergrad applicants, but usually at higher interest rates than what Undergrads have to pay.

It must also be noted that grants for graduate school do not include the Pell Grant and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.

Undergraduate and Graduate Students must follow the same process while applying for FAFSA; the eligibility criteria and other requirements are almost identical.

 To qualify for federal student aid, including grants, work-study, or loans, an applicant must meet some basic eligibility criteria. To fulfill these criteria, the student must:

• be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen;
• have a valid Social Security Number;
• demonstrate financial need;
• be enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a regular student in an eligible degree or certificate program;
• be registered with Selective Service if the applicant is a male (registration should be done between the ages of 18 and 25);
• be enrolled at least half-time to be eligible for Direct-Loan Program funds;
• sign all certification statements on the FAFSA form;
• show that the student is qualified to obtain a college or career school education based on specific criteria.

Additional eligibility criteria may apply to non-citizen students and students who fall outside the ‘general’ category of applicants.

In addition to U.S. Citizens who are eligible to apply for financial aid, the following types of applicants may also apply but will have to fulfill additional criteria to do so:

• Students with a parent who was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan
• Non-U.S. citizens
• Students with criminal convictions
• Students with intellectual disabilities
• Homeless Students
• Students who are or have been in foster care

For specific or more information, visit the Eligibility Requirements page^[2] of studentaid.gov to understand each type of application and associated eligibility criteria.

A common question students have is, “How much does FAFSA cover graduate school?”.

If the student applying for FAFSA has met all basic eligibility criteria, the application is processed by the financial aid office at the applicant’s college or career school. It is this office that will determine how much aid the student is eligible to receive, generally based on:

1.  Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
2. Year in school.
3. Enrollment status (full-time or part-time).
4. Cost Of Attendance (COA) at the school applied for.
5. Any need-based aid.
6. Any non-need-based aid.

Students who wish to apply for financial aid to help pay for college must complete and submit a Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) form. This form is available online at studentaid.gov^[3] and must be filled up on the same portal. Alternatively, a printed form is also available and can usually be picked up from the financial aid office of a FAFSA graduate school or downloaded from studentaid.gov (for the school year 2023-2024)^[4]. If one gathers all the required information well before starting the application process, completing the FAFSA form in no time will be easier. To fill it out completely, here are a few things that are needed:

1. An FSA ID
2. Social Security Number
3. Alien Registration Number (for non-U.S. citizens) 3DDriver’s License Number (optional)
4. Previous Year’s Tax Records
5. Records of Untaxed Income
6. Records of Assets (Money)
7. List of Schools (Interested in Attending)
8. A personal e-mail Address For dependent students:
9. Social Security Number of Parents
10. Income & Financial Records of Parents

Note: The FAFSA form for 2023-2024 has been available since October 1, 2022. Depending on the state of legal residence, the submission deadline varies, but for students of most states, the submission deadline is June 30, 2024. It is advisable to apply early as many awards are given on a first-come, first-serve basis.

How to Complete FAFSA Graduate School

Once the required information is made available and ready, the application in itself is pretty much straightforward, broken down into a few steps/sections:

1. Step 1. Student Information: Personal & Education
   This section is where the applicant needs to fill in details such as name, date of birth, social security number, e-mail address, etc. An FSA ID will prepopulate much of this information, saving time and effort. In addition, some basic education-related information is sought, such as current study, grade level, graduation, etc.
2. Step 2. Student Information: Finance & Marital Status
   This section could be carried on easily using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, accessed through the ‘Link to IRS’ button. Doing so can populate much of the information asked for but for those who may be ineligible to transfer tax information from the IRS, there is always the option of filling up the form manually. This section also deals with the student’s marital status, and one should truthfully choose from never married, separated, divorced, widowed, or not married and provide relevant details as well.
3. Step 3. Student Information: Dependency Status
   The dependency status seeks to establish whether the applicant is an ‘independent’ student or needs to submit their parents’ tax information. Most of the questions here require a simple “yes” or “no” answer, but one must be careful to read the question correctly and answer without a doubt.
4. Step 4. Parent Information: Demographics of Parents
   Based on the answers provided in Step 3, the student needs to either fill in the information asked for in Step 4 or skip it and move on to Step 5. If the answer to every question in Step 3 is “no,” then Step 4 must be filled. On the other hand, if the answer to any question in Step 3 is “yes,” then Step 4 may be skipped entirely. Either way, this section deals with information about the parents much as Step 1 deals with that of Students.
5. Step 5. Student Information: Dependency Status (Additional)
   Students should complete this section only if they answered “yes” to any question in Step 3. There are only a few questions in this section that are in line with those asked in Step 3.
6. Step 6. Student Information: Selection of School
   Regardless of whether the student has applied to a college or not, they are at liberty to choose up to ten colleges at a time (maximum of 4 in case of a paper FAFSA form) without having to worry about applying to them or being accepted by any of them. Data of colleges that the Student will ultimately end up not attending, will be securely discarded. Furthermore, no college can see the list of choices, so it is wise to select as many as possible at this stage. There is a handy search tool that makes this step easy, provided, of course, the applicant knows at least the State where the college is located and either the city or name of the college.
7. Step 7. Student & Parent: Signing & Submitting the FAFSA Form
   Independent students can sign and submit the FAFSA form on their own, without the need of parents having to do so, too. However, those who qualify as dependent students also need their parents to sign the form. If such is the case, both parents (1 and 2) must also have FSA IDs and enter them before submitting the form.

Once the form is submitted, FAFSA will start processing it, and the applicant can monitor its progress by logging into studentaid.gov^[5] with their FSA ID. Schools selected by the applicant will automatically receive information from FAFSA and, if selected for admission, will tailor a financial aid package for the applicant.