Narrow window to fill out FAFSA approaches

February is National Financial Aid Awareness Month, and one important aspect of this is to make students and parents aware of the time frame in which to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form.

In order for students to receive financial aid from either the government or the college, they must fill out this application by June 30. If you wait until then, however, you may be out of luck. Don't even wait until April 15, when your taxes are due. We suggest having filed your FAFSA by the end of March at the latest.

For students to get the maximum amount of financial aid possible, they must fill out and submit their FAFSA form as soon as possible. If you have not filled out your tax forms yet, you can use your tax information from last year. Once you complete your taxes and have the updated information, log on to the FAFSA Website and update your information.

Parents and students should have received all their W-2 forms and work information by now. Use this information to fill out your taxes and your FAFSA at the same time; it will save you time and, most likely, money.

There are several computer programs available to assist with filing your taxes, such as TurboTax and TaxCut. Using one of these programs will drastically decrease your tax prep time and make the process much easier.

Once you have finished your taxes, be sure that your FAFSA accurately represents your financial situation. Mistakes on the FAFSA can be costly, as it will take time for you to redo the form with the correct information, and you may be too late to get a good financial package from the college.

If you have a student in college and have already filled out a FAFSA in a previous year, don't be fooled into thinking that you only needed to fill out the form once. You must file a FAFSA each year with your updated financial information.

A good financial package starts will filling out your FAFSA accurately and quickly. The sooner you file, the sooner the college will give you money, and the more you will get.

This email contains suggestions and guidelines from College Assistance Plus about what specific things you need to do this month to get your student financially ready for college. Scroll down to find the age bracket that your student falls under to read what you should be doing this month.

CAPlus news

College Assistance Plus is franchising! Visit our franchise Website to read more about this exciting adventure. We now have two new franchises in Georgia and Ohio, in addition to our corporate headquarters in New York. If you or someone you know is interested in this new opportunity, email franchise@collegeassistanceplus.com.

Pick up a copy of NextStep Magazine this month to read a featured article by our Communications Director, Bethany Warsaw, about how to decode your financial aid letter! You can also visit NextStep online.

High school sophomores

If you know any high school seniors or parents of high school seniors, you might notice that they seem stressed. College selection is a stressful process for both students and parents, and it can even drive a wedge in between family members. The sooner you begin the process for yourself, the easier it will be down the road. Look at colleges! Think about where the student might want to be and what he or she wants to do! Save money! While you do all these things, however, remember not to panic. You have a lot of time, but it is good to get the ball rolling to take some of the pressure off yourself later.

Students should also keep up their grades! A strong GPA will often be rewarded with college grants, free scholarships, and other educational grants.

Sophomores need to continue studying for the SAT and ACT tests for at least one hour a week. It is important to treat this test as homework to ensure that the student receives the highest score possible. Colleges often knock down tuition prices by thousands of dollars depending on SAT/ACT scores. The Kaplan software that College Assistance Plus provides is very helpful in preparing for these tests. As the format of this test has recently changed, College Assistance Plus should have provided its clients with an updated version of the software.

Top athletic students should make sure to compile video highlights of their games and to keep together any newspaper clippings about themselves. Most student athletes won't get a full ride to college, but they can pick up a few thousand dollars at many schools if they have the talent and if that talent is well-documented.

Students should participate in career profiles and college searches to begin getting an idea of what is available for them. Attend college fairs! Continue to explore interests and careers that you think you might like.

Students need to continue working to make themselves attractive to colleges. Doing volunteer and community service work is a great way to increase your chances of receiving college grants and scholarships.

Parents should move qualified assets into non-qualified accounts. This strategy is an important key to receiving more financial aid than you may have thought possible. (Qualified assets are assets that qualify for the FAFSA, while non-qualified assets do not.) If your assets are exposed to either the federal or institutional methodology, you can reduce the amount you have to pay by altering the title or moving those assets into non-qualified accounts. Be careful to properly and legally implement these strategies. See your financial advisor or College Assistance Plus representative for any assistance in this process. Remember that college is a four-year adventure. If you receive $5000 more in free college scholarships each year, it adds up to $20,000 overall. That's a lot of savings!

High school juniors

You may notice that high school seniors and their parents seem a bit stressed around this time of year. They are busy applying to colleges and getting things in order for financial aid and negotiation, none of which are a job for the faint-hearted! College selection is a stressful process for both students and parents, and it can even drive a wedge between family members. As a junior, you have probably been taking steps already by looking at colleges and thinking about where you would like to go. The sooner you are taking these steps, the better. You have a lot of time left, but keep yourself moving so that you don't end up panicking during your senior year.

Collect information about college application procedures, entrance requirements, tuition and other fees, room and board costs, student activities, course offerings, and financial aid. The Internet is a good way to find this kind of information; your College Assistance Plus representative may be able to gather some of it for you as well. Begin comparing schools by factors that you find most important.

If you plan to take the ACT, register now for the April 8 exam. Registration is due by March 3, and late registration (which requires a late fee) is accepted until March 17th. The next SAT test is April 1; regular registration is due by February 24 and late registration is due March 8. It is important to note that only the SAT will be offered on this date; the SAT II subject tests are not available. Visit www.actstudent.org and www.collegeboard.com for more information and to find testing sites.

Students should continue to refine their lists of potential colleges. Contact the admissions and financial aid offices at any colleges in which you are interested so that you can get information now on admission, scholarships, and financial aid. Talk with your parents about the colleges in which you are interested; parents can help with this process!

Students should consider asking for recommendation letters now. If you have been involved in community work or volunteer projects with a teacher or an adult, ask them now to write you a recommendation letter. Getting a head start is a great idea, and it is important for you to get recommendations from people with whom you have worked closely and can recommend you highly.

You should identify schools where the student is in the top 25% of the admitting freshman class. If you want to increase your chances of receiving more scholarships/aid, find schools where the student is in the top 25%. Students in this category tend to receive more free college scholarship/grant money and need less money allotted in student loans. Look on your College Assistance Plus report for this information.

Don't blindly follow everything that the school guidance counselor recommends without exploring other options as well. Guidance counselors are often overworked, with more students to "guide" than they really have time for. More often than not, they can't get to know your student personally, especially because they are not privy to your personal financial information, and they will not be able to recommend schools that will give your student the best deal financially. Often counselors are solicited by certain colleges and tend to push students in the direction of these schools.It is good for the student to talk with the guidance counselor, but be sure that you keep an open channel with your College Assistance Plus representative so that you have other recommendations as well.

Athletes who play spring sports (such as track and field, baseball, softball, etc.) should plan to take photographs and video of themselves make sure that you are marketing yourself to schools now. Don't wait for the sport season to be over, because many colleges have already made decisions by that time. Now is the time to be emphasizing what you have done in that sport in the past.

Students should continue to save papers, projects, or any other good work that they are doing in school. Having these things on hand will be helpful during the admissions process (and can serve as portfolios or references later!).

Parents should also move qualified assets into non-qualified accounts. This strategy is an important key to receiving more financial aid than you may have thought possible. (Qualified assets are assets that qualify for the FAFSA, while non-qualified assets do not.) If your assets are exposed to either the federal or institutional methodology, you can reduce the amount you have to pay by altering the title or moving those assets into non-qualified accounts. Be careful to properly and legally implement these strategies. See your financial advisor or College Assistance Plus representative for any assistance in this process. Remember that college is a four-year adventure. If you receive $5000 more in grants, gifts, and college scholarships each year, it adds up to $20,000 overall. That's a lot of savings!

Juniors should keep focused on their schoolwork during the end of the fall semester. Junior-year grades are especially important because they show to the college what kind of work the student can do in advanced, upper-level courses. Grades are also used to determine scholarship and grant eligibility.

High school seniors

Students should have finished filling out applications for colleges by now, or they should be close to having applied to every school they are interested in. Many schools have deadlines in March and April, though most select schools' deadlines are in January and February. If you have missed deadlines, look for colleges with later deadlines to which you can apply. We suggest applying to six or more of your favorite colleges from the list that College Assistance Plus has compiled for you.

By this time in February, you should have filled out your FAFSA, either in hard copy or online. You should be able to do this based on your tax forms or by estimates from last year's tax forms. 42% of submitted FAFSA forms contain mistakes, so contact us if you would like us to review your FAFSA before you submit it. We are trained to spot mistakes and have helped many clients submit correct FAFSAs.

Follow up with colleges to which you have applied in order to make sure that they have received all application information, including recommendations and test scores.

Students should meet with their guidance counselors to discuss their college plans. Go over previous SAT and ACT scores with him or her to determine if you should retake either of these tests. Discuss whether the colleges to which you want to apply are appropriate, considering your academic and personal records. Request that your counselor send the transcripts of your first-semester grades to the colleges to which you applied, if necessary. Follow up to make sure that he or she has sent the forms for you.

By now the due dates for recommendation letters should be approaching. Recommendations are very important when applying to colleges, so be sure to ask for recommendation letters if you know they have not yet been sent to the school. This is an important step in the application process! If the person who is writing the letter does not turn in the recommendation on time, you do have the right to ask them about it. Also, it is appropriate to tell the person writing the letter what you have already told the college and what you hope to see in the letter. Often this gives the writer a strong foundation on which to write.

Don't make rash decisions. This is the most important thing that you can remember right now. You don't have to make a commitment at this point; just apply to as many schools as you can, and wait to see what kind of financial packages they will give you. Remember that 33% of students transfer after their first year of college and another 12% after their second year, and the average student changes his or her major at least 3 times in the course of their undergraduate education. The average cost of changing a major is about $8000, which adds up, especially if the student is in school for the average 5 years. The point of all this is to emphasize that you should really take your time and choose schools that you really would want to be at. Also, don't just choose a school because of a boyfriend or girlfriend. Often relationships don't last throughout college, and one or the other of you may decide to transfer for academic or financial reasons.

Don't focus in on a technical school unless you are certain that you will not be changing majors. Students who are planning on going to college for pre-med, for example, should keep in mind that 80% of pre-med students drop out of that program and change to another major in their first year of college. Often, liberal arts schools are good choices because they have a variety of programs that students can switch to if they find they do not like what they first decided to major in. Talk to your College Assistance Plus representative to determine what exactly you are looking for, and they will help you find colleges that will meet your needs.

If you plan to take the ACT, register now for the April 8 exam. Registration is due by March 3, and late registration (which requires a late fee) is accepted until March 17th. The next SAT test is April 1; regular registration is due by February 24 and late registration is due March 8. It is important to note that only the SAT will be offered on this date; the SAT II subject tests are not available. Visit www.actstudent.org and www.collegeboard.com for more information and to find testing sites. Have official test scores sent to colleges on your list if you have not yet done so.

If you have filed your FAFSA, watch the mail for your SAR (Student Aid Report). This should arrive about four to six weeks after you file the FAFSA. (If you do not receive it after this amount of time, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID or visit www.fafsaed.gov. It is important that you get this information.) This report summarizes your financial aid eligibility, so check it carefully to make sure that it is accurate. If there are any inconsistencies, follow the steps in the packet to make the changes and send it back.

Students should also beware of ending up at a school that is too selective for them. Applying to and choosing to attend a very selective school can often hurt more than it can help; if you are only considered average at that school, they will not want you as much as they would want someone who would be above their average. Schools are businesses, and they offer better financial rewards to students that will help their institution appear better.

If the student is taking any AP courses for college credit, begin preparing for the tests in May. If there is an AP preparation class available, consider taking it. These courses can give you college credit that you will not have to pay for later, so better grades are more beneficial.

College freshmen and sophomores

By this time in February, you should have filled out your renewal FAFSA, either in hard copy or online. You should be able to do this based on your tax forms or by estimates from last year's tax forms. 42% of submitted FAFSA forms contain mistakes, so contact us if you would like us to review your FAFSA before you submit it. We are trained to spot mistakes and have helped many clients submit correct FAFSAs.

Good grades mean higher incentive for the college to give you scholarships for the following year and years after that. Also, 30% of students transfer after the first or second year of college, so higher grades will give you the ability to negotiate a great deal at the college the student is transferring to. Parents need to remember that their student is on his or her own as far as school goes now, but it can be good to see how the student is doing academically or to give encouragement over the phone.

It is very important for any students that received academic scholarships to keep their GPAs at the required level. Many students lose their scholarship benefits because of low GPAs, causing them to lose thousands of dollars the next year because of a lack of effort. Have fun at college, but don't lose your focus on performing well academically.

If you are coming home for spring break this year, plan on looking for a job for the summer (especially if you want to get a job in your field of study). Service jobs are plentiful in the summer, but focusing on a particular job that will reflect your major takes work to find and will enhance your resume. Network around and get some interviews if possible. You're only three months away from school being out for the summer!

Students should avoid buying books from the campus bookstore if possible. Buying used books from other students or online is almost ALWAYS cheaper, and you may be able to get up to 40% off new and used books through College Assistance Plus at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Online.

Students should be sure they have met with their academic advisors to work out schedules for the next semester and to discuss plans for the next few years. If you have not declared a major yet, talk with a counselor or general advisor to determine which classes to take in the next semester that may be required to graduate. Don't get trapped into an extra semester or year if you can help it!

Do not hesitate to call your College Assistance Plus representative if you are uncertain about how to use your degree. We are here to help, and sometimes it is beneficial to have a third party with whom you can talk about this issue. We don't want you to end up in a position where you have no way to get a job when you graduate, so we will try to help you figure out what you want to do with the degree you are getting.

College juniors

Students should be sure they have met with their academic advisors to work out schedules for the next semester. Also, talk with advisors or professors about helping to find an internship or summer job. Don't expect that someone else will find you a job, however; this is your responsibility.

Parents should make it a point to caution their students about getting credit cards. The average college student has eight credit cards! We cannot stress enough the importance of controlling credit card use! Any late payment can be used as an excuse by the credit card company to increase the card's interest rate. Grace periods are also shrinking; whereas they used to be 30 days long, many credit card companies are decreasing these periods to 20 days, and some have no grace period at all. Be sure that both you and the student know the card's policies before signing up. Even inactivity on a credit card can result in high bank fees!

By this time in February, you should have filled out your renewal FAFSA, either in hard copy or online. You can do this based on your tax forms or by estimates from last year's tax forms. 42% of submitted FAFSA forms contain mistakes, so contact us if you would like us to review your FAFSA before you submit it. We are trained to spot mistakes and have helped many clients submit correct FAFSAs.

It is very important for any students that received academic scholarships to keep their GPAs at the required level. Many students lose their scholarship benefits because of low GPAs, causing them to lose thousands of dollars the next year because of a lack of effort. Have fun at college, but don't lose your focus on performing well academically.

Continue talking to friends/relatives/acquaintances about any job connections those people may have. In order to ensure that you find a job when you graduate, it's good to find an internship or job in your field during the summer. Networking is the best way!

Do not hesitate to call your College Assistance Plus representative if you are uncertain about how to use your degree. We are here to help, and sometimes it is beneficial to have a third party with whom you can talk about this issue. We want you to be in a good financial place, so we will try to help you figure out what you want to do with the degree you are getting.

Students should avoid buying books from the campus bookstore if possible. Buying used books from other students or online is almost ALWAYS cheaper, and you may be able to get up to 40% off new and used books through College Assistance Plus at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Online.

College seniors

Parents should caution their seniors about getting credit cards both now and after they graduate. We cannot stress enough the importance of controlling credit card use! Any late payment can be used as an excuse by the credit card company to increase the card's interest rate. Grace periods are also shrinking; whereas they used to be 30 days long, many credit card companies are decreasing these periods to 20 days, and some have no grace period at all. The student needs to know the card's policies before signing up. Even inactivity on a credit card can result in high bank fees! Sometimes it is best to have a credit card that the student can use solely for gas or similar purchases, but also to have a debit card that takes money directly from the student's bank account. This keeps the student from building up large amounts of credit with a credit card company while giving them the convenience of having a card to carry.

Many campuses hold career fairs around this time of year. This is a great opportunity to talk to some people in different fields and perhaps even have some interviews. If you get any opportunity to attend any of these fairs, take it! You never know what kinds of leads you might get.

Continue looking for jobs and internships, and talk to friends and family for ideas or contacts. If you'll be coming home for spring break, this will be a great time to talk to people! Network like crazy and stay focused. Parents usually have many friends and contacts that may be helpful. Try to talk with anyone who might be able to help so that you have as many people as possible looking for opportunities for you. Remember that most jobs aren't posted on web sites or in the newspaper. Don't rely on the college to get you a job; getting your first job is all about networking! If you're in a four-year program, you're only three months away from the end of your college career!

Students should also take this time to pursue recommendations from college professors or department heads. If you do not know your professors or department heads personally, try to get to know them in the few months you have left. It is important to have a relationship with these people because they can be very influential and helpful when it comes to recommendations or references.

Students should avoid buying books from the campus bookstore if possible. Buying used books from other students or online is almost ALWAYS cheaper, and you may be able to get up to 40% off new and used books through College Assistance Plus at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Online.

Strategic Suggestions

High school students, especially juniors and even sophomores, need to spend time studying for the SAT and ACT tests. Unless you got a nearly perfect score, retake the tests! The highest combination of scores is kept, so there is no way for you to hurt yourself by taking the tests again. Some schools automatically reduce the costs of tuition by 50% or more if the student's SAT score is 1100 (by the old standard) or above! There are also many scholarships that students can qualify for based only on their SAT/ACT scores.

High school seniors need to remember not to make rash decisions right now. You don't have to make a commitment at this point; just apply to as many schools as you can, and wait to see what kind of financial packages they will give you. Remember that 33% of students transfer after their first year of college and another 12% after their second year, and the average student changes his or her major over 3 times in the course of their undergraduate education. The point of all this is to emphasize that you should really take your time and choose schools that you really would want to be at. Also, don't just choose a school because of a boyfriend or girlfriend. Often relationships don't last throughout college, and one or the other of you may decide to transfer for academic or financial reasons.

College students should work hard to get good grades, for getting excellent grades greatly enhances the ability to get extra money from the college for the following year. Also, if the student does need to transfer schools, a high GPA is extremely beneficial in getting a good financial aid package.

If there has been some circumstance in your family that has suddenly created financial hardship, write a letter to the college's Financial Aid Director explaining the situation. Be specific in asking for the university's support during the spring semester or this fall if possible. It would also be helpful to specify a dollar amount to assure them that the student would stay at the school if they could receive some extra assistance. Don't get ridiculous in your request but give the college a target. Also, make sure that they understand that you are not looking for loans but gifts/grants/hardship dollars directly from the college or university. If you call your CAPlus representative, he or she will assist you in drafting this letter.