Better Options Than The Paper FAFSA

The important thing to remember is that no matter how you file your FAFSA, you want to be as prepared and confident as possible. The information you'll be disclosing is not only very personal, but is also of tantamount importance in determining the level of government financial assistance you'll receive for your schooling. Many students and parents file the FAFSA on paper with no outside assistance and very little forethought. Don't be one of these students or parents.

Filing With Counselor Assistance
If you're unable to file any other way and must fill out a paper application, be sure to seek help from a qualified counselor. You should literally ask a counselor from your high school to sit with you and your parents while you fill out the FAFSA. The counselor knows -- better than you do -- what information is most important for the FAFSA document. He/she can also help you easily look up important information like numerical school codes and current tuition rates.

Filing Via Phone
Applying for FAFSA over the phone can be a decent option if you don't have an internet connection or your high school counselor is unavailable. It offers you a certain amount of expediency and some professional assistance too. Before you even think about filing over the phone, be sure to gather all your personal information just as if you were applying on paper. When you're ready to go with your information, it's time to do some research to find a reputable file-by-phone company. A big warning here: Fraud is a real problem with file by phone. Take steps to ensure you're not setting yourself up to become an identity theft or scam victim. You might even go as far as to verify a company's trustworthiness with the U.S. Department of Education. Once you've found a reputable company to file with, you'll be guided through the process by one of their phone counselors. This process can be surprisingly efficient, and your FAFSA's filing will be immediate. Keep in mind this option costs money though -- sometimes even hundreds of dollars.

Online Filing
If you have access to a secure Internet connection, filing FAFSA online is a no-brainer. Instead of gathering all your information separate from your application and then going for it all at once, applying online allows you to take a more graduated approach. If you don't have all your information in place, you can still start your application online, save it there, and come back to it at a later time. The FAFSA website also has many helpful worksheets to help you optimize your information gathering and your application in general. Some other benefits: It's easier to spot punctuation and spelling errors online -- and easier to correct them too. Also, if your penmanship is poor, filing online will eliminate problems in reading your messy application. Another nice perk to applying online is the email notifications you can receive. Instead of corresponding with bureaucrats at a snail's pace, you can rev your communication up to cyber speed. You can also make regular checks of your application's status online. Finally, applying online speeds the entire process up, and speed is critical for any FAFSA application. The closer you can file your FAFSA to the January 1st start date, the better.

Filing Online, With Counselor Assistance
This is your best bet. Make an appointment as soon as possible to discuss your Internet application with a counselor.