The time has come to apply for your financial aid. This page will cover:

myStudentAid Mobile App
Cash 4 College Workshops
Completing Your Application
Using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool
Signing & Submitting Your Application

You can start submitting your Financial Aid Applications on October 1st. We recommend that you submit your application in October, and the absolute deadline to be considered for anything other than Student Loans is March 2nd. Work through this page to prepare to submit your FAFSA.

Please remind your friends who are Dreamers that they will complete the CA Dream Act Application. Frequently Asked Questions for that application are located here.

Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. -Malcolm X

myStudentAid Mobile App

You can now apply for financial aid completely through your cell phone (if you're submitting a FAFSA)! It is really simple to use, and because you as high school students tend to use your phones for everything, it is more intuitive than the online application. The online application is still just as available for use, so use whichever one speaks to you.

For more information about the mobile app, check out the Federal Student Aid website.

Unfortunately, there is no app for the CA Dream Act at this time.

myStudentAid mobile app image

Cash 4 College Workshops

Cash 4 College Workshops are specifically designed to help you complete your financial aid applications. Representatives from various educational organizations in Humboldt County travel to high schools to help seniors and their families complete their financial applications and troubleshoot any problems that arise. Cash 4 College is for both FAFSA and CA Dream Act Applications.

Please check with your TRiO advisor and school counselor for Cash 4 College dates and times at your school or a school near you.

Applying

The first day you can submit your FAFSA is October 1st. Let your friends who are Dreamers know that they can start submitting their CA Dream Act Applications starting October 1st as well. We recommend that you:

complete and submit your financial aid application as early as possible, preferably during the month of October.
plan to spend about an hour completing your financial aid application for the first time. When you re-file next year, it will take you less time because it won't be a brand new process.

There are questions on financial aid applications that will not apply to all students. In general, if you don't know what something is on your financial aid application, then it doesn't apply to you. This isn't always true, so feel free to check in with your TRiO advisor and school counselor about any confusing questions.

Male students must register for the selective service. This is not optional if you are a male student and you want financial aid for college.

IRS Data Retrieval Tool

The IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) allows students and parents who filed a U.S. tax return with the IRS to access the tax return information needed to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form and transfer the data directly into the FAFSA form.

Note: There are several scenarios in which you may not be given the option to use the IRS DRT, including if you aren’t eligible to use it.

Please let your friends who are Dreamers know that the Data Retrieval Tool is not available for the CA Dream Act Application.

How to Use the Data Retrieval Tool

To use the IRS DRT, you can do the following on the FAFSA form’s student or parent financial information pages:

Select the “Proceed to the IRS” button.
Enter your FSA ID. (Note: The person whose tax information is being transferred should enter their FSA ID. A student won’t be asked to enter their FSA ID if the student entered an FSA ID to begin their FAFSA form.)
Your FAFSA form will be saved and you’ll be transferred to the IRS website.
On the IRS website, enter the requested information exactly as it appears on your tax return. Once authenticated with the IRS, you’ll be provided with information surrounding your IRS tax information. You can either transfer your information from the IRS or choose to return to fafsa.gov.
If you use the IRS DRT to transfer your tax return information from the IRS, the information won’t display on your FAFSA form. For your protection, the answer to each question is replaced with "Transferred from the IRS."

The IRS DRT allows you to securely transfer original IRS tax return information, but not IRS Form 1040-X amended tax return information. If you filed an IRS Form 1040-X amended tax return, you may need to work with your financial aid administrator to ensure that any information you corrected on an IRS Form 1040-X amended tax return is reflected in the amounts transferred to your FAFSA form.

Signing Your FAFSA

As mentioned before, you and one parent will sign the FAFSA electronically using the FSA IDs you've already created. You'll both need either your FSA ID username or verified email address, and your password. After agreeing to the terms and filling out your information, you'll press Submit, and you're done!

If your parent does not have a Social Security Number and therefore cannot sign the FAFSA electronically, there is a slightly different process. You should have entered all zeroes when the FAFSA asks for your parents' SSNs. On the signature page, you (the student) will sign electronically using your FSA ID. Then, you’ll need to select the option to print a signature page. Print the page, have your parent physically sign it, and then mail it in so that your FAFSA form can be processed. You'll mail it to a PO Box in Kentucky. The PO Box changes annually, and it will be printed each year at the bottom of the signature page.

Please let your friends who are Dreamers know that they will be able to sign their CA Dream Act electronically. They will also need one parent to sign electronically.

Click Next to learn what happens after submitting your Financial Aid Application.