Parents and students have to wait until January 1st before they can officially submit their FAFSA for the upcoming academic year (2012-2013). Very few actually submit the FAFSA on January 1st but I am guessing that there are always over achievers amongst us that make the process part of their New Year’s Eve tradition. A financial aid director friend of mine once shared his opinion on how the festivities probably take place for those that are on top of their FAFSA game: “Oh look the ball has dropped in Times Square. We should probably smooch because that is what everybody does. Ok, now lets go submit our FAFSA form!”.

You may not be like the families mentioned above, but for those that want to get a jump start on what to expect when filing the FAFSA, I am pleased to clue you in to the fact that a draft of the paper FAFSA for 2012-2013 is now available. You can access the PDF version here.

My hope is that none of you actually utilize the paper FAFSA to submit your information to the Department of Education. The paper version mentioned above is more for information purposes and provides some insight on what will be asked of you. I always recommend that you make use of the latest and greatest technology available at www.FAFSA.ED.gov to electronically submit your FAFSA. The Department of Education utilizes skip-logic technology to make sure you don’t answer redundant questions and they also provide a feature that allows you to import your tax information directly from the IRS (seems a little scary at first but definitely saves on time and limits mistakes).

I hope you find this information helpful. Remember, the FAFSA is the key to all things good when it comes to accessing financial aid to help pay for college. Make sure you designate time this coming year to get your FAFSA application completed. Your checkbook will thank you!

If you need additional help and/or guidance through the financial aid process,  please feel free to check out CheapScholar’s College Resource Page for more great information.