How to Complete the 2010-2011FAFSA

Information compiled and presented by College Access Program Staff

The following information has been created to guide you in the process. The information should only be used as a guide, if you have additional questions please contact CAP staff.

Step One: Be Prepared

For the 2010-2011 school year you will need financial information from 2009. You may need to refer to:› Your Social Security card. It is important that you enter your Social Security Number

correctly! › Your driver’s license (if any) › Your 2009 W-2 forms and other records of money earned › Your (and your spouse’s, if you are married) 2009 Federal Income Tax Return.

IRS 1040, 1040A, 1040 EZ Foreign Tax Return, or Tax Return for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall

Islands, the Federal States of Micronesia, or Palau › Your Parents’ 2009 Federal Income Tax Return (if you are a dependent student) › Your 2009 untaxed income records › Your current bank statements › Your current business and investment mortgage information, business and farm

records, stock, bond and other investment records › Your alien registration or permanent resident card (if you are not a U.S. citizen)

*Please note you may not use all the documents.

Step 2: Apply for a FAFSA PIN

To request a PIN go to Federal Student Aid's PIN Web site at www.pin.ed.gov.› If you have never received a PIN, choose Apply For A PIN. › If you have a PIN but have lost or forgotten it, choose Request A Duplicate PIN. › If you think someone else knows your PIN, choose Change My PIN.

Answer the questions that appear on the screen. You must indicate how you would like to receive your PIN. The fastest method of receipt is the display my pin now option.

Verify your mailing address and e-mail address. Click the Submit Request button and wait for the confirmation page to appear.

› If you choose to have the PIN displayed now , it will display it on the confirmation page.› If you choose to have the PIN e-mailed to you, it will send an e-mail immediately notifying

you that your PIN has been created and how to retrieve it.› If you choose to have the PIN mailed to you, it will mailed to the mailing address on file. It

may take 7-10 days for you to receive it. You should not request a duplicate PIN if you think your PIN has been compromised.

Instead, you should change your PIN if you think someone else knows it. You can choose your own new PIN, or we can randomly generate one for you. To change your PIN, click Change My PIN on the left side of the PIN Home Page.

* Please note that both the student and the parent will require separate pin numbers in order to sign the fafsa. This means you will each have to separately apply for pin numbers using your own personal information.

Will I Need My Parent’s Information?

If you can answer No to all of the following questions, you are considered a dependent student on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA):

Were you born before January 1, 1988? As of today are you married? At the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, will you be working on a master's or doctorate

program (such as an MA, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, Eddy, or graduate certificate, etc.)? Are you currently serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces for purposes other than training? Are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces? Do you have children who will receive more than half of their support from you between July 1, 2010

and June 30, 2011? Do you have dependents (other than your children or spouse) who live with you and who receive

more than half of their support from you, now and through June 30, 2011? At any time since you turned age 13, were both your parents deceased, were you in foster care or

were you a dependent or ward of the court? As determined by a court in your state of legal residence, are you or were you an emancipated

minor? As determined by a court in your state of legal residence, are you or were you in legal guardianship? At any time on or after July 1, 2010, did your high school or school district homeless liaison determine

that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless? At any time on or after July 1, 2010, did the director of an emergency shelter or transitional housing

program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development determine that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless?

At any time on or after July 1, 2010, did the director of a runaway or homeless youth basic center or transitional living program determine that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless or were self-supporting and at risk of being homeless?

Dependent Vs. Independent

If you are considered a dependent student, you must include parental information on the FAFSA.

If you can answer Yes to any of the previous questions, you are considered an independent student and information about your parents is not required on the FAFSA .

Who is Considered a Parent?

If your parents are married, provide information about both parents. If your parent is widowed or single, provide information about that parent. If your parents have divorced or separated, provide information about the

parent that you lived with most during the last 12 months. If you did not live with one parent more than the other, provide information about the parent who provided most of your financial support during the last 12 months.

If your parent has remarried after being widowed or divorced, provide information about both your parent and your stepparent.

If you have a legal guardian, you cannot use your legal guardian’s information on your application. A legal guardian is not considered a parent in the financial aid process.

If you have foster parents, you cannot use your foster parents’ information on your application. A foster parent is not considered a parent in the financial aid process.

If you were adopted, follow the instructions above for parents, based on your adoptive parents’ current marital status.

Note: The following people are not considered parents on this form unless they have legally adopted you: grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, older brothers or sisters, and uncles or aunts.

Step 3: Completing the FAFSA

2010-2011 is the FAFSA you need…

The newest version of the fafsa will ask which FAFSA you wish to complete. It is important you select the correct fafsa as each corresponds to a different academic year.

You will need to complete the 2010-2011 fafsa in order to receive aid for the summer program.

* Make sure you are completing 2010-2011!

Select a Password

The next page will ask that you select a password. This will allow you to return to the fafsa at a later time in the event you are unable to complete the fafsa in one sitting.

Select a password that is hard for others to guess, but easy for you to remember.

The following page will be an introduction page, select next in the lower right hand corner to move on.

Completing the FAFSA cont…

You should now be in the Student Demographics Information section of the FAFSA. Enter the Student's information in this section.

Select next in the lower right hand corner once you have entered in all of the students information. Please double check that you have correctly entered the students social security number.

Student Eligibility

This page determines student eligibility for funding. Select citizenship status. Select the answer that describes your high school completion

status.› High school diploma means you have received or will receive a high

school diploma before the first date of your enrollment in college.› General Educational Development (GED) means you have received or

will receive a GED diploma before the first date of your enrollment in college.

› Home schooled means you have completed home schooling at the secondary level regulated by your state.

› None of the above means you do not have a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent and did not complete secondary school in a home school setting.

Select your grade level in college from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. If you are currently a senior in high school or will be a first-time college student, select Never attended college/1st year.

Student Eligibility Cont.

When you begin the 2010-2011 school year, what degree or certificate will you be working on?› Select 1st bachelors degree

Select the answer that best describes your father's and mother’s highest level of education completed. For this question, father/mother means your birth or adoptive father/mother. Do not answer this question about a stepfather, legal guardian, or foster parent.

School Selection

Enter 002360 for the MSU Mankato FAFSA school code and select add.› Select on campus for your housing plan.

Do you want to provide additional information about your college enrollment plans? Select yes.

When you begin the 2010-2011 school year, what do you expect your enrollment status to be? Select full-time.

In addition to grants, what types of aid are you interested in? Check all that apply (work-study and loans).› It is important to be open to all, you have no obligation to

accept these types but you will not be offered them if you do not select all.

Dependency Determination

The answer to this question is pre-filled based on your answer to the date of birth question earlier in the application.› If you are a dependent student, all answers

will be no to these questions. › In order to be considered independent, you

must have official documentation of the circumstance.

Special Circumstance

On the screen, select whether or not you will be providing parental information. If you are dependent, this is a mandatory process.

If you think you might be independent because of special circumstances that would prohibit you from providing parental information please speak with staff prior to submitting your fafsa. Contact information provided on the last slide.

Parent Demographics

You must select the answer that describes your parents' marital status as of today.

If single, select the parent that you live with and receive support from. If your parents have an e-mail address and would like to be notified by e-mail

when your FAFSA has been processed, enter the e-mail address where requested. To determine your parents’ household size, include:

› 1) yourself; › 2) your parents; › 3) the number of other children (other than yourself) who will receive more than half of

their support from your parents between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011; and › 4) the number of people who are not your parents' children but who live with your parents

and receive more than half of their support from your parents, and will continue to receive more than half of their support from your parents between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011.

Enter the number of people in your parents' household who will attend college between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. Do not include your parents in this number. Do include:› Yourself, even if you will attend college less than half-time in 2010-2011.› Other people in your parents’ household only if they will attend college, at least half-time,

in a program that leads to a college degree or certificate in 2010-2011.

Parent Tax Information

Select the option that indicates your parents' 2009 income tax return filing status:› • Already completed

• Will file • Not going to file

You must select the income tax return that your parents filed or will file for 2009 IRS 1040 › IRS 1040A or 1040EZ › A foreign tax return › A tax return for a U.S. territory or a Freely Associated

State (including Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau tax returns)

Parent Tax Information Cont.

Enter the amount of your parents’ adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2009. The AGI can be found on: › IRS Form 1040 – Line #37 › IRS Form 1040A – Line #21 › IRS Form 1040EZ – Line #4

Answer the dislocated worker( parent on fafsa)if he or she: › is receiving unemployment benefits due to being laid off or losing a job and is

unlikely to return to a previous occupation; › has been laid off or received a lay-off notice from a job; › was self-employed but is now unemployed due to economic conditions or natural

disaster; or › is a displaced homemaker.

Select Yes if your parent is a dislocated worker. Select No if your parent is not a dislocated worker.

*Note that the financial aid administrator at your school may require you to provide proof that your parent is a dislocated worker, if you answered Yes.

More Parent Tax Info

Enter your parents’ total tax amount for 2009. If your parents filed: IRS Form 1040 – Enter Amount From Line: 55 IRS Form 1040A – Enter Amount From Line: 35 IRS Form 1040EZ – Enter Amount From Line: 11 Enter your parents' exemptions for 2009. If your parents filed a: 1040 enter the number from line 6d. 1040A enter the number from line 6d. 1040EZ and did not check either box on line 5, enter 01 if they

are single or 02 if they are married. 1040EZ and checked either the “you” or “spouse” box on line 5,

use line F on the EZ worksheet to determine the number of exemptions ($3,650 equals one exemption).

Note: The line numbers above are from the IRS tax form, not from the W-2 form.

More Parent Tax Info

Check all that apply for the listed items. Add the account balances of your parents’ cash, checking, and savings

accounts as of today. Enter the total of all accounts as the total current balance. If the total is negative, enter zero as the total current balance. Do not add student financial aid into the account balances.

The net worth of your parents’ current investments is the amount left over after deducting the debt from the value of the investment. › Investments include real estate (do not include the home you live in), trust

funds, UGMA and UTMA accounts, money market funds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, stocks, stock options, bonds, other securities, installment and land sale contracts (including mortgages held), commodities, etc.

› Investments also include qualified educational benefits or education savings accounts such as Coverdell savings accounts, 529 college savings plans and the refund value of 529 prepaid tuition plans.

› Investments do not include the home you live in, the value of life insurance, retirement plans (401[k] plans, pension funds, annuities, non-education IRAs, Keogh plans, etc.) or cash, savings and checking accounts.

Business and/or investment farm debt means only those debts for which the business or investment farm was used as collateral.

Student Tax Information

Complete all of the steps as you did in the Parent Tax information section.

If you did not have any income, select not going to file and move on to the next section.

It will then ask the amount of income earned from working, enter 0 if you did not have any income or the amount earned if you had income.

Sign & Submit

You will now need the pin number for both the parent and the student. › Select sign electronically with the pin and

enter it in space provided. › Once you have entered each pin, click the

respective sign button once. In order to submit your FAFSA on the

Web, you must review the Terms of Agreement and select Agree.

Select submit which is the final step.

Confirmation Page

Successful submission will yield a confirmation page.

Please print this page for your records. After you have submitted the fafsa,

select the link below to complete the MSU supplemental financial aid application for summer 2011.

http://www.mnsu.edu/campushub/summer/app/2011/step1/index.html

MSU Summer Financial Aid Application Step 1 - You will

need a Dynamic Forms account to access the Summer 2011 Financial Aid Application.

Select Continue located next to the no response.

MSU Summer Financial Aid Application Cont.

The Student Response Form is to be completed online by the student and electronically signed and submitted.

When you click on the Continue link in the lower right corner for the first time, you will be required to "Create an Account". You will want to remember your username and password you choose, as you will need it to log into online forms in the future.

It is strongly recommended that you use your Minnesota State Mankato e-mail address when setting up your Dynamic Forms account. If you are a new student not yet set up with University e-mail (this occurs after orientation/registration), please consider updating your Dynamic Forms account later with your Minnesota State Mankato e-mail address.

Creating an Account

Follow the prompts to create an account. Username Format

› 1) Minimum length - eight › 2) Must contain at least one letter

3) Alphanumeric characters and symbols acceptable 4) Must not contain unicode characters (i.e. combinations using

ALT + 0000 – 1024) Password Format

› 1) Minimum length - eight › 2) Must contain characters from each of four groups

o Lower case letters (i.e. a, b, c) o Upper case letters (i.e. A, B, C) o Numbers (i.e. 1, 2, 3) o Alphanumeric characters or symbols (i.e. @ , $, &)

3) Must not contain the user ID 4) Must not contain unicode characters (i.e. combinations using ALT

+ 0000 – 1024

Completing the Form

After you have created an account, you will be returned to the log in page.

Log in with the user id and password that you have selected.

Select Complete this form by clicking the image like that pictured below.

Completing the Form

Complete the form with the required information. You will be taking 12 credits during the summer,

this should be entered next to the question “ how many credits will you be enrolled for”.

If you have attended another university during this academic year, such as this spring or last fall, enter that where asked.(Transfer students)

Electronically sign the form and then select save and print.

A sample form has been included as an attachment with this email to guide you through the process.

Final Step!!!!

After you have completed both the 2010-2011 FAFSA and the MSU

Summer aid application please send an email stating the following message to

briana.threatt@mnsu.edu Subject: Last Name, CAP Financial Aid

First & Last Name, and City Briana I have completed my summer

financial aid process.

References

www.fafsa.ed.gov www.mnsu/financialservices