October 1st

It's October 1st and for seniors, this is a very significant day.  For the first time, the FAFSA is now open on October 1st.  (In the past it used to open on January 1st.)  The government and colleges have moved FAFSA's opening date and due dates up in order to give students and families more time to be able to have their financial aid offers and consider the implications when making the decision about which college will be the best fit financially.  The FAFSA for high school seniors will be based upon the 2015 tax returns.  You can access the FAFSA here:  https://fafsa.ed.gov/

When students and parents are completing the FAFSA, you will each need to have an FSAID number.  This number will allow you to electronically sign your FAFSA and in the future it would let you sign promissory notes as well as complete future FAFSA's.

The student and parent will each create their own separate numbers.  You cannot use the same e-mail addresses for the creation of the numbers so if you don't have an e-mail address and have been using your parents e-mail in the past then this is the ideal time to create your own e-mail account.

You will make your own challenge questions to help you access your number if you forget it in the future so it is important to write down those challenge questions and answers to make sure you will remember it down the road.  I recommend that students and parents make a folder related to FAFSA where you store all of this information so that you will always have it when you might need it.

If you forget to create an FSAID number prior to completing your FAFSA, it will still have a link for you to be able to go back and create one, but ideally you should create it ahead of time.

Here is a link to create your FSAID numbers:  https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting for parents at 7:00pm on October 12th in the WKHS Auditorium.  We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students.  She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.  

And, for seniors, October 1st is also significant because we are now at the 1 month countdown to the November 1st deadlines.  Many colleges will have early action/ early decision/ or scholarship deadlines of November 1st.  If you are applying to a school with a November 1st deadline that needs a teacher or counselor recommendation letter hopefully you have already asked for that letter.  Remember, you should be giving your recommenders at least 30 days to write your letters!  So, if you haven't asked and need one by November 1st, please download the forms off the WKHS Counselor website and ask first thing on Monday morning.  The 1 month countdown also reminds you that you have work to do on your application!  Please start working on it if you haven't already.  I have been reading a lot of great essays, but I have not seen nearly the number of you that I would hoped to have seen by this point.  The deadlines sneak up faster than many people expect, so please start working on your applications!