Last year, students left $3.6 billion in grant aid for college on the table. So, take a lesson: Fill out the FAFSA and get your money!
If you’ve applied to the University of California (or any other school, for that matter), congratulations on choosing to invest in your future. The next big step: Fill out the FAFSA so you get as much help paying for college as you can.
You’re likely to get more money than you expect — and we’re talking about grants and scholarships that never have to be paid back.
Rarely referred to by its full name, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the FAFSA is the first step in securing financial assistance at UC or other colleges and universities. (For undocumented Californians, the California Dream Act Application is the gateway to financial aid instead of the FAFSA.)
The FAFSA unlocks money in the form of Pell Grants, which provide up to $7,395 per year for college. Those are federal funds that students don’t ever have to pay back. Plus, the FAFSA is the first step in getting other kinds of grants, scholarships and institutional or state aid, even if your family income is too high to qualify for a federal Pell Grant.
Astoundingly, 44 percent of high school graduating seniors around the country didn’t even fill out the FAFSA in 2022, leaving nearly $3.6 billion in free college grant aid unclaimed.
For California alone, the dollar value of unclaimed Pell Grants in 2022 was more than $511 million. That’s a big number, and it reflects a big problem for the state: Many college-ready, low-income students aren’t accessing the financial help they are entitled to. As a result, many choose to forego college altogether — and miss out on the life-changing benefits of a degree.
To help reverse the problem, California passed a bill requiring high school seniors to fill out the FAFSA to graduate. But an opt-out allows you to bypass the mandate, and people applying to UC as transfers or after a break in their education are exempt, too.
“The good news is that the FAFSA has been revamped this year to make it quicker and easier for students to fill out,” said Jamal Collins, a UC student financial support analyst. “Submitting a FAFSA is the single most important thing a student can do to ensure they get as much help paying for college as they should.”
The same changes that have streamlined the form have also resulted in expanded eligibility. An estimated 220,000 more students will qualify for Pell Grants, and the average grants that students receive will be bigger than last year.
