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FAFSA Applications Open Early for 2017

Higher Education and money
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College students and their families now have more time to apply for financial aid.

Before this year, in order to receive financial aid, students had to apply for the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, starting in January. Now, however, the window opened for students to apply on October first.

Terri Harfst is the director of the Financial Aid Office for SIUC, and says having students apply in October instead of January will give them more time to make more educated choices.
 
"If we can get that information out to them earlier in the cycle, you know, December or January, then they have several more months to, again, make an informed decision."
 
Harfst also says with the new system in place, students will use their income tax information from the two years previous the application year. She says this will make the process easier and give families more time to decide what they want to do.
 
"So at the same time they're applying for their admission application to their universities that they're considering, they can also file the FAFSA and see what kind of information they're going to get from those universities related to cost."

Students are also encouraged to use the Data Retrieval Tool, which imports tax information directly from the IRS to the FAFSA, at www.FAFSA.ed.gov.

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