Awareness Month

February is Financial Aid Awareness Month! The Student Financial Aid Services team will be posting daily Financial Aid information all month.  Check in with us for more information regarding assistance with FAFSA filing, loan repayment, understanding your financial aid awards, and more!

Events

Financial Aid Awareness Month

For the month of February, we will be posting a new topic daily on a portion of FAFSA process! Don't worry if you missed a topic, we will save them below!

Make sure you can log into your StudentAid.gov account—and remember your username and password that you used in 2024-2025 so you can access and submit the 2025–2026 FAFSA form.

If you or your parent need to create their FSA ID, please watch this video:

FA Awareness Month: Topic of the Day

For the month of February, we will be posting a new topic daily on a portion of FAFSA process! Don't worry if you missed a topic, we will save them below!

(Friday, February 28, 2025)

Loan Repayment- Which Payment Plan should I Enroll In. Loan Simulator is the best way to compare our different repayment plans. You can use Loan Simulator to find out which plans you’re eligible for and to see estimates for how much you would pay monthly and overall. 

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/​

PREVIOUS TOPICS

(Thursday, February 27, 2025)

How Do I Create a StudentAid.gov Account If I Don’t Have a Social Security Number? Students must be a U.S. Citizen or Eligible Non-U.S. Citizen to be eligible to file a FAFSA. 

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_EfT5_qtM​

(Wednesday, February 26, 2025)

How Do I Complete the 2025-26 FAFSA Form If My Parents Are Divorced or Separated? If your parents are divorced or separated, which parent’s information will be required is determined by whether your parents live together or not and which parent provided the most financial support.

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba2irkCtYvo

(Tuesday, February 25, 2025)

Federal Student Aid Estimator. The student may want to use the Federal Student Aid Estimator before filling out the FAFSA® form to help them understand their options for paying for college or career school by providing them an early estimate of how much federal student aid they may be eligible for.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator/estimate/student-information​

(Monday, February 24, 2025)

List Your School You’re Attending. Be sure to add any colleges, career schools, or trade schools you’re considering, even if you haven’t applied or been accepted yet. You can list up to 20 schools on the online 2025–26 FAFSA form. Even if there’s only a slight chance you’ll apply to a school, list it on your FAFSA form. You can always remove a school later if you decide not to apply, but if you wait to add a school, you could miss out on financial aid.

(Friday, February 21, 2025)

Records of Your Assets. The FAFSA form will ask you and your contributors questions about your assets, so make sure you have records of your savings and checking account balances, as well as the value of any investments, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate excluding your primary residence. Report the current amounts of your assets as of the date you sign the FAFSA form, rather than reporting the 2023 tax year amounts.

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpjwM6zzdPc

(Thursday, February 20, 2025)

Types of Aid Available. Don’t count yourself out by not filing your FAFSA. Learn about the different types of aid that may be available for you.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types​

(Wednesday, February 19, 2025)

Untaxed Income. You and your contributors may need to answer FAFSA questions about untaxed income, such as child support and interest income. On the 2025–26 FAFSA form, you’ll use 2023 tax or calendar year information to answer these questions.

(Tuesday, February 18, 2025)

Your 2023 Federal Income Tax Return. Beginning on the 2025–26 FAFSA form, you and your contributors must provide consent and approval to have your federal tax information transferred directly from the IRS into your FAFSA form. Providing consent and approval is mandatory, even if you or your contributors don’t have an SSN, didn’t file a tax return, or filed a tax return outside the U.S.

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd21zLLR6yw&t=4s

(Monday, February 17, 2025)

Managing your Student Loans. Want to start making early payments on your Federal Direct Loans? Click on the link to sign into your Federal Student Aid account and to find your find your Loan Servicer. 

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/make-payment

(Friday, February 14, 2025)

Award Offer! Filed your FAFSA but haven’t received your financial aid award offer? Check your document portal for any outstanding financial aid requirements.

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1EbAs2XpgE​

(Thursday, February 13, 2025)

FAFSA Submission Summary. After your FAFSA form is submitted and processed, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to access an online copy of your FAFSA Submission Summary. The FAFSA Submission Summary replaces the Student Aid Report for the 2025–26 award year.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/help/fafsa-submission-summary

(Wednesday, February 12, 2025)

What is Consent and why is it important? Consent and approval are needed to retrieve and disclose federal tax information from each participant on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid FAFSA® form. With consent and approval, we can obtain your federal tax information automatically from the IRS to help complete the FAFSA form.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/2425/help/consent-federal-tax-info

(Tuesday, February 11, 2025)

Don’t miss out on State Aid. Complete State Records in NJFAMS by March 1, 2025 or 30 days from initial notification.

Useful Link: https://www.hesaa.org/Pages/StateDeadlinesCurrentAY.aspx

(Monday, February 10, 2025)

Who needs to create a StudentAid.gov account? Beginning with the 2025–26 FAFSA® form, each of your contributors if you have any will be able to create a StudentAid.gov account even if they don’t have an SSN

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch

(Friday, February 7, 2025)

Why do I need to provide consent and approval? Both you and your contributors must provide consent and approval to have the IRS transfer your federal tax information into the FAFSA form. Your contributors must provide consent and approval even if they don’t have a Social Security number SSN, didn’t file a tax return, or filed a tax return outside the U.S. If you or your contributors don’t provide consent and approval, you won’t be eligible for federal student aid.

Useful Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd21zLLR6yw

(Thursday, February 6, 2025)

Who is a Contributor on the FAFSA? “Contributor” is a new term on the 2025–26 FAFSA form. It refers to anyone you, your spouse, your biological or adoptive parent, or your parent’s spouse who’s asked to provide their information, consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred automatically from the IRS into the FAFSA form more on that later, and signature on your FAFSA form.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/2425/help/which-parent-contributor

(Wednesday, February 5, 2025)

Understanding your SAI. The Student Aid Index SAI is an eligibility index number that your college’s or career school’s financial aid office uses to determine how much federal student aid you would receive if you attended the school.

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/how-sai-calculated

(Tuesday, February 4, 2025)

New Jersey Dreamers, you may still be eligible for State Aid! If you did not receive State Aid for fall or just started classes in spring, you still have time to file your 2024-2025 NJ Alternative Application by February 15th!

Useful Link: https://he7606.hesaa.org/Pages/NJAlternativeApplication.aspx

(Monday, February 3, 2025)

It’s time to file your 2025-2026 FAFSA! NJIT priority deadline for FAFSA filing is February 15th. Make sure to add our school code on your FAFSA before you submit your application or we will not receive it.  NJIT School Code 002621. If you haven’t added our school code, click the link below to do so today!

Useful Link: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa

 

Financial Aid Services is hosting a number of events in honor of the financial aid awareness month. Please check them out on our events page!