I am a single mother and freshman student. I am the only person in my family to ever go to college. I have no idea what i am doing and what is out there as far as help paying for school. I dont understand where your fasfa go's and does it help you pay for living expenses ect... I could use all the information i could get, I also need info on getting a federal loan and how that works as well.

To begin, the FAFSA is a document used by the federal government to determine what your EFC (estimated family contribution) is for college - how much your family can afford to spend on your college education. You should visit http://www.fafsaonline.com/ for information on filing the FAFSA. A few days after filing your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report, which will show you what the federal government determines your EFC to be. 2-3 weeks after filing the FAFSA, you will receive a financial aid report from each school that you were accepted to/are already attending, which will tell you how much federal aid they are willing to give you. For more information on federal loans, try visiting http://www.staffordloan.com/. You should always take out federal loans before applying for private student loans. However, if you need additional funding, try visiting http://www.privatestudentloans.com/ to look into taking out a private student loan.

pahern11 wrote:To begin, the FAFSA is a document used by the federal government to determine what your EFC (estimated family contribution) is for college - how much your family can afford to spend on your college education. You should visit http://www.fafsaonline.com/ for information on filing the FAFSA. A few days after filing your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report, which will show you what the federal government determines your EFC to be. 2-3 weeks after filing the FAFSA, you will receive a financial aid report from each school that you were accepted to/are already attending, which will tell you how much federal aid they are willing to give you. For more information on federal loans, try visiting http://www.staffordloan.com/. You should always take out federal loans before applying for private student loans. However, if you need additional funding, try visiting http://www.privatestudentloans.com/ to look into taking out a private student loan.

Hi there, thankyou for the reply and the links that you mentioned- these would be of great help for many of us who want information about FAFSA and federal loans.