That is a question I am asked often. The answer is none, zero, nil. No matter who you are, or how little money you earn or have you can be flat penniless and FAFSA will give you no money, because FAFSA has no money.
Stop. Before you recite in your mind all of the stories of friends and family who received substantial sums of money "from FAFSA," let's get the facts straight.
What is FAFSA? The Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The key is the third word application.
FAFSA is the way you apply to receive federal student aid. FAFSA is, in itself, just a way of transmitting data to a college's financial aid office.
Let's back up and explain FAFSA from the beginning. FAFSA became a thing in 1992 under a revised Higher Education Act authorization of the Congress. FAFSA replaced a form called the Common Financial Aid Form, CFAF. The intention was to expand access to college by expanding eligibility for financial aid
from the United States Treasury, administered by the Department of Education.
The Department of Education, through its arm, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), establishes eligibility for assistance on a grid that factors income, assets, family characteristics (single, divorced, number of dependents, etc.). That assistance includes free money (PELL Grant, Federal Supplemental
Educational Opportunity Grant FSEOG), education loans directly to students, and to parents of students.
How much free money is authorized, and whether the loans are subsidized (U.S. Treasury picks up the interest) or not is calculated based on the information put on the FAFSA. That information is shared with any college you request. The actual dollars authorized by the FAFSA calculations are sent to the college
to be disbursed to the student.
In the financial aid offices, there is some discretion; meaning the financial aid officer handling a student's application can bump the figure up a little, and even reduce it a little. There are guidelines to follow, and it is called "Professional Judgment." Those in-house decisions can be appealed, but any increases will likely be modest.
Beyond that, most states and colleges use the FAFSA information to determine additional financial aid a student may be line to receive. States also have funds available based on need and eligibility. The colleges themselves have a pot of their own money they also distribute based on both need and merit.
Merit means, how much of a "scholarship" you are offered is a measure of how much the college would like to have you matriculate. With the exception of an endowed scholarship (where a donor makes monetary awards) the scholarships offered by the colleges themselves are actually discounts on tuition.
To recap, how much money will you receive from FAFSA? None. FAFSA will be transmitted to the colleges you choose. In the college financial aid offices available monies will be offered in a Student Aid Report (sometimes called a Financial Aid Report). That report will include the federal benefits offered
(including loans), the state awards offered, the college's own awards and loans offered. If, adding all of those up, the sum does not yet attain to the total "Cost of Attendance," that will be indicated as "Unmet Need."
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