The 2015-2016 academic year will be here in the blink of an eye which means it’s time to start planning. You need to start asking yourself questions like: What classes do you need to take? Who won’t drive you crazy as a roommate? But most importantly, how are you going to pay for school?! Well, unless you’ve recently won the lottery paying for school means you should apply for Financial Aid.

As you’ve probably heard, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is your online application for all Federal Student Aid programs, most university scholarships, and the state Access Missouri grant, and is available for completion NOW. The FAFSA needs to be completed every year so if you completed one for 2014-2015 you will still need to complete another one for 2015-2016.  It’s important that you not only complete the FAFSA every year, but that you also get it submitted by certain deadlines.

What are these deadlines, you may ask? Well, the 2015-2016 FAFSA deadline is June 30, 2016. HOWEVER, if you want to be considered for ALL the aid programs available you need to have your FAFSA submitted by March 31, 2015. This gets your application in before the Federal, State, and Missouri State deadlines.

Even though you will be eligible for the Federal Pell grant and Direct Student loans by meeting the June 30, 2016 deadline you will miss out on eligibility for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity grant, the Perkins loan, and the College Work Study program by not meeting the March 31 priority deadline.  For Missouri residents, the deadline for the Access Missouri Grant is April 1. So remember, get your FAFSA completed by March 31, 2015 to maximize your Financial Aid Award Letter…unless you won the lottery!