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Completing The FAFSA

Complete the steps below to apply for federal and state grants, federal loans, or the federal Work Study program.

1. Apply to Mid-State and be accepted into a financial aid eligible program.

2. Apply for financial aid by completing the FAFSA online.

  • If you do not already have an FSA ID, obtain yours at studentaid.gov/fsa-id
  • Mid-State's federal school code is 005380.

After you submit your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR).

Note: Once you are done with the FAFSA, write down your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) or print the page when you complete the FAFSA. You will need it for the next step. If you forgot to write it down, it should be in the confirmation email.

3. Submit any needed documents.

After submitting your FAFSA, you may need to submit additional documents. If so, you will receive a request from the Financial Aid office. Be sure to complete all requested documents and return them to Financial Aid within two weeks of receiving the request. Financial aid applications will not be processed otherwise. Make sure to include your student ID on all submitted documentation.

Optional:

Request additional aid in the form of loans on our Requesting the Amount of Financial Aid Needed page.

Priority Dates

Priority dates for completing the FAFSA and submitting all additional documentation are:

  • Summer Term: March 15th
  • Fall Term: June 1st
  • Spring Term: October 15th

Which FAFSA do I file?

Be sure to select the correct year; beginning October 1st both the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 FAFSA will be available at StudentAid.gov.

  • Complete the 2022-2023 FAFSA for Summer 2022, Fall 2022 and Spring 2023
  • Complete the 2023-2024 FAFSA for Summer 2023, Fall 2023 and Spring 2024
FAFSA Tips
  1. Make sure you write down your FSA ID and all the security questions and answers EXACTLY the way you created them. Don’t rely on your memory, but treat this information like you would your social security card—with extreme caution.
  2. Are you dependent or independent? There are three basic criteria to determine your answer to this question. If the answer to any of the following questions is yes, then you are an independent student.
    • Were you born before January 1, 1999?
    • Are you married?
    • Do you now or will you have children who will receive more than half their support from you between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023? If not, then you are most likely dependent, in which case you will need your parents to create an FSA ID, and you will need their tax information as well as yours. There are other criteria that are rare. If you have questions, review the questions in the FAFSA carefully or contact us.
  3. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT) electronically transfers your Federal Tax Return information into your FAFSA form. It makes the process much easier for you and satisfies the need for a tax transcript if it is required for verification. You must list the address that is on your tax return EXACTLY the way it appears on the tax return. If the accountant spelled your name or address incorrectly on the tax form, then you have to put it in incorrectly on the data retriever (not the rest of the FAFSA).
  4. It typically takes three days for your FAFSA to process. You will know when it is done processing when you get your Student Aid Record (SAR) in the mail or via email. Review it carefully to see if you have been selected for verification and to ensure that you have the same EFC as compared to the confirmation sheet you printed when you finished the FAFSA.
  5. Verification: if you are selected for verification you will be notified by mail or email in the SAR, and you can see what documents are required to satisfy verification at MyMSTC. If you have any questions about verification contact us.
  6. When you get to the work study question in the FAFSA, do yourself a favor and select yes (indicating that you are interested in work study). It is much better to say you are interested and never use it. If you are interested in work study you must also accept or decline at MyMSTC.
  7. Unusual circumstances are situations where a student and/or their parents (if student is dependent) have a severe change in finances. You may request a professional judgment by completing a re-evaluation request form. An example of this is when student, spouse, or parent has a big change in income as compared to the year reported on the tax form. This most often happens as the result of changing jobs or change in amount earned in commissions. These are not the only cases, so if you are not sure ask us.
  8. PLEASE BE PROACTIVE. As a small department processing thousands of students as quickly as we can, we can help you best when you do your part and complete your steps in the process in a timely fashion. To make sure you have done your part, check MyMSTC.