quick question: Fafsa deadlines

[regentrude]

I figured the Hive would be knowledgeable on this one:

 

What does the FAFSA deadline for the state mean? Is that only relevant for students who are eligible for state aid?

If we do not receive state aid and the deadline for  financial aid for returning students at DD's college is later, is there any reason I need to do the FAFSA now?

 

Thanks

[FaithManor]

Boy, I'm not exactly certain, but all of the colleges we've looked at said to get used to thinking of Valentine's Day as the goal for getting FAFSA signed for all four years of applying for aid.

 

My guess is that you probably need to do it sooner than later, but hopefully someone else here will know specifically.

[DianeW88]

Well, last year I did my son's in June, and my dd waited until August the year before that, because she had to wait until her wedding had taken place so she could file as "married'.  Usually I just wait until after my tax returns have been filed.  Sometimes that's March, sometimes it's May.  It's never mattered one way or another.

[Mabelen]

Probably not. We have already submitted ours just in case, even though we haven't filed our taxes yet. We plan to update the Fafsa with the IRS retrieval tool, I think that's what we did last year.

[G5052]

Here it has to be a done by April 1st.  I had to get moving on our taxes!

 

I've heard that there's a little flexibility there if you contact them with your situation, but they do need the preliminary one by then and set a deadline for getting the final numbers.