FAFSA deadlines deserve a place on your calendar before you start comparing college costs. The federal filing date is only one cutoff: state grants, scholarships, and college aid can have earlier deadlines. Waiting until the federal deadline could mean missing one that matters to your budget.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is used to determine eligibility for federal grants, work-study, and loans. States and colleges also use its financial information to assess students for their own programs. Completing it is free, and the practical starting point is to find the earliest deadline that applies to you.
Check your state and college deadlines first
For the 2026–27 academic year, the federal FAFSA submission deadline is June 30, 2027. That date does not tell you when a particular state scholarship or college aid program closes.
Before choosing when to file, check these three places:
- Your colleges: Look at each school’s financial aid website for its application and priority deadlines. Contact the financial aid office if the dates are unclear.
- Your state: Review the state deadlines on the Federal Student Aid website and check the requirements for the grants or scholarships you want to pursue.
- The federal application: Confirm the deadline for the academic year you need. Keep that year attached to every date you record.
Ask whether a program has a priority deadline and whether it needs a separate application. Put the earliest relevant date on your calendar, with time beforehand to finish the paperwork.
Get the application and contributors ready
Use the official Federal Student Aid website to start your FAFSA. Give yourself room to check your answers and coordinate with anyone else whose information is required.
The basic filing sequence is:
- Sign in or create an account. Select the academic year for which you are requesting aid.
- Complete the requested information. Follow the form’s questions about your circumstances, finances, and the schools you are considering.
- Invite any required parent or spouse. Each contributor needs their own account to complete and sign their section.
- Review, sign, and submit. Check that the required contributor sections are complete, then confirm the application’s status in your account.
Finishing your own section can still leave work for a parent or spouse. Coordinate that handoff before your deadline gets close.
Use the aid offer to work out what you can afford
After processing, review your FAFSA Submission Summary for errors and any next steps. Its eligibility estimates can help with planning, but the school’s financial aid offer provides the amounts and types of aid you are being offered.
When those offers arrive, look at what grants and scholarships cover, how much borrowing is included, and what remains for your household to fund. Use those figures to build a college budget alongside savings and planned student earnings.
Take questions about an offer to the college’s financial aid office, especially when you need to understand the amount left to pay. The FAFSA starts the application process; the offer helps you assess whether the resulting costs fit your finances.
You also need to submit a FAFSA each year to continue applying for aid. For returning students, make checking the next academic year’s state, college, and federal deadlines part of that routine.