Do you have to apply to a college before applying for FAFSA?

Do I have to have decided on a college before applying for FAFSA? (financial aid)?

• I haven't decided on which college i'll be attending in the fall and but i'm trying to submit my FAFSA application quickly. Is it okay to submit it without a decision?

• Answer:

  You list 10 colleges on the FAFSA you may be interested in. They will send your SAR report, which is the result of your FAFSA to all the colleges you list on the FAFSA. Those colleges on the list that you apply to and want to offer you admittance will then create financial aid award offers for you. Then you look them over and then pick a collge to attend and accept their award. http://bellarminearc.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/file-your-fafsa-early-this-year-and-heres-why/ FAFSA needs to be filed every year. It becomes available Jan 1 every year. We do ours Jan 1 every year. The earlier you do it the more you maximize your award. Colleges are given limited funding from the govt for federal aid. Some types are given first come first serve. So even if you qualify if you do qualify if you file later it may be given to students who filed early and you will not get it. Many students wait for their parents to do their taxes. You do not have to do that. On the FAFSA form there will be a question about if you filed taxes like filed, will file, will not file. You choose will file. Then you use the completed taxes from the previous year to do the FAFSA as an estimate and submit it. Then as soon as you can get the current year taxes done and then log back onto your FAFSA and it will say make corrections. You click on that and then change the tax question to filed and then put in the current tax information and resubmit. Note resubmit, not save. Save is at thebottom and that just saves your FAFSA. You can save it and then up top right it says submit.