Where can I find a list of FAFSA deadlines?

January 30, 2009 9:08 PM

Where can I get a list of universities in the U.S, and when their application deadlines for receipt of the FAFSA (Federal Application For Student Aid) is due? I'm making general movements towards grad school, but I have no idea where yet. Some schools have a FAFSA deadline of January 31; which ones?
posted by duende to education (5 comments total)

Did you apply already? Those January deadlines are for students who applied for the 2009-2010 school year and as such would have sent their application in already.

If you're apply for 2010-2011, get your apps together and then send in your FAFSA.
posted by k8t at 9:13 PM on January 30

Yeah, I didn't have to fill out the FAFSA until I was accepted to grad school.
posted by one_bean at 10:38 PM on January 30

I'm making general movements towards grad school, but I have no idea where yet.

grad school is a very very very expensive investment, and in many fields one that is only really worth both your time and money only if you attend one of a select set of programs. figure out what you want to do and where you should be going to best achieve that, not where you can go based on fafsa or any other set of deadlines.
posted by lia at 11:26 PM on January 30

You can apply for FASFA just about anytime... even weeks after the deadline you can often still get funding for a current semester.

The hard deadlines are things like applications for a program, etc.

I don't know what you're worrying about it now anyway, you need to pick a school and program, get accepted, and THEN think about financial aid.

I know in my department applications for the Fall are due in Feburary of that year. And it's earlier for other programs... so you're at likely looking at starting a program in the Fall of 2010 unless you find a program that allows spring admissions. Don't let that discourage you, many programs will let you take graduate courses before you're admitted and apply them later if you do well... not sure how the funding for that works. You may have to come in as a "student at large" or something like that... the point is there are ways to get in even for people who were asleep at the wheel during the previous summer and fall when they should have been figuring all this out.

Trust me I know... I didn't have all of my junk together in time, missed the application deadline, and wasn't officially enrolled until a year later... Then again I go to a big state school that lets shit like that slide. A more serious program probably looks for people who can actually submit forms on time... just say'n...
posted by wfrgms at 12:05 AM on January 31

Most deadlines fall between March and May. No deadline for the upcoming year will be Jan. 31st because you need your federal tax return to file. I appreciate wfrgms comment about getting yourself into school first, but I tend towards the opposite end of preparedness. Since the FAFSA is free and you can send information to any school regardless of whether you get admitted or not, I would do it. If you wait too long you are outside the normal stream of application deadlines and that can delay your processing, especially if everything isn't "just right"...just a bit of advice from experience.
posted by mrmojoflying at 2:26 PM on February 1