Skip to main content
Hub

Completing the FAFSA

FAFSA Preparation Checklist

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can seem daunting, but we are here to help you through the process!

  • Set Up Your FSA ID

    • Create Your FSA ID Now

  • Gather Some Information
    • To submit your FAFSA, you will need:
      • Your Social Security number (or Alien Registration number if not a U.S. citizen).
      • Your driver’s license number, if you have one.
      • Your federal income tax returns, W-2s, and other records of money earned for the specific financial year required by the FAFSA.
        • All contributors must consent to an IRS information transfer using the Direct Data Exchange, regardless of whether they filed taxes in the United States. If your information is not available for the IRS to transfer, you will be able to add it manually. All contributors must provide consent or the FAFSA will be considered invalid.
      • Bank statements (information on cash, savings, and checking account balances) and records of investments (if applicable) - including stocks, bonds, real estate (not including the home in which you live), and business and farm assets.
      • Records of untaxed income (if applicable), such as child support received, interest income, and veterans noneducation benefits for the specific financial year required by the FAFSA.

  • Complete and Submit Your FAFSA!
    • Once you have gathered everything, you are ready to submit your FAFSA online via the Federal Student Aid website.
    • You can submit your FAFSA to up to twenty different institutions. To send your FAFSA information to WVU (including divisional campuses), you can search WVU by name or use the school code 003827 within the FAFSA.

Financial Aid Process

The FAFSA can be completed online via the Federal Student Aid website.

Unsatisfied Requirements

Once your FAFSA is received, WVU will send a notification to your MIX email (via your WVU Portal) if you need to make corrections or submit additional documentation. Visit our Unsatisfied Requirements webpage for more information.

Aid Offers

If a FAFSA is received and there are not any unsatisfied requirements preventing the institution from reviewing you for financial aid eligibility, notifications of financial aid offers usually begin in December for the following academic year for new/incoming students for the upcoming aid year. They usually begin in March for current/continuing students.

Once aid offers have begun for the upcoming year, students can see their aid via their Financial Aid Information in the WVU Portal.

  1. October 1

    FAFSA for the Upcoming Year Opens!

    The FAFSA typically becomes available on October 1 for the following academic year (example: October 1, 2025 for Fall 2026, Spring 2027, and Summer 2027).

  2. March 1

    Priority FAFSA Submission Deadline

    FAFSAs submitted after the priority deadline will not be considered for certain types of aid, such as the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant or Federal Work-Study.

  3. After FAFSA Submission

    Next Steps

    Students receive a FAFSA Submission Summary — a summary of their FAFSA information. It does not tell you how much aid you will receive, but it does list if you may need to make corrections to your FAFSA or if you have been selected for verification of data you provided on your FAFSA.

Contributors

A contributor is anyone — the student, the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse (such as a stepparent) — who is required to provide information on the FAFSA. All contributors must sign the FAFSA with their FSA ID or the FAFSA will be invalid and an SAI will not be calculated.

Each contributor should set up their own FSA ID with their own individual email account. Parents or spouses are not authorized to set up an FSA ID on behalf of their student, and students are not authorized to set up their parents’ or spouse's FSA ID(s).

Contributors of dependent students who may need to create an FSA ID include:

  • Biological or adoptive parents who are married, living together, and filed taxes separately must each have an FSA ID.
  • Biological or adoptive parents who are married and filed taxes jointly need at least one parent to have an FSA ID.
  • Biological or adoptive parents who are not married, living together, and filed taxes separately must each have an FSA ID.
  • Remarried parent who filed taxes separately, both parent and stepparent must each have an FSA ID.
  • Divorced parent who provided more than 50% of the financial support for the past 12 months must have their own FSA ID.
    • If this parent is remarried and filed separately, both the parent and stepparent must each have an FSA ID.
    • If this parent is remarried and filed jointly, at least one parent must have an FSA ID.
  • Single parent of a dependent student must have their own FSA ID.

Contributors of independent students who may need to create an FSA ID include:

  • Spouses of independent students who filed taxes separately must have their own FSA ID.

Please review the Tax Information section below for the tax year associated with each financial aid year.

Tax Information

Certain questions on the FAFSA may ask for current financial information, and others may ask for financial information from a certain year.

Pay attention to the question — it will specify "current" or list a specific year.

Below are the financial years that are most relevant to each FAFSA:

FAFSA Aid Year Semesters Covered Financial Year Requested
2025-2026 Fall 2025 and Spring/Summer 2026 2023 financial information (unless the question is specifically requesting current information)
2026-2027 Fall 2026 and Spring/Summer 2027 2024 financial information (unless the question is specifically requesting current information)

Other Financial Details

Change in Finances

If the information you provided on your FAFSA no longer accurately reflects your or your family's financial situation, there are certain circumstances in which you can submit an appeal. Students who wish to appeal an SAI calculated from a 2026-2027 FAFSA should visit our SAI Calculation Appeal webpage.

Change in Marital Status

Here are some tips for this type of situation using the example of the 2026-2027 FAFSA (which requests 2024 tax information):

  • Your FAFSA asks for marital status "as of today" (the day it’s filled out). So if you or your parent are married now but were not for your 2024 taxes (and therefore didn’t file taxes as married), the spouse’s 2024 income will need to be added to the FAFSA.
  • Similarly, if you or your parent filed 2024 taxes as married but are no longer married when filling out your FAFSA, the spouse’s income will need to be subtracted.
  • And if you or your parent were married when filing 2024 taxes, then got divorced and are now married to someone else, there’s a bit more math to do: Subtract the ex’s income, then add the new spouse’s income.

The FAFSA help text covers all these situations in more detail as you’re filling out the application.

Parent Information

Most students are considered dependent for federal aid purposes, which means parent information must be included on the FAFSA. Visit the Federal Student Aid website for dependency information to determine if you are dependent as well as details on which parent's information should be reported on the FAFSA (if parents are divorced, separated, etc.).

If your parents refuse to provide information for your FAFSA, and you answer “Yes” to the Apply for Direct Unsubsidized Loan Only question on the FAFSA, you may be eligible for limited unsubsidized loan eligibility if your parent(s) complete the FAFSA Parent Information Refusal form.

If you have no contact with your parents, do not know where they live, your parents are incarcerated or deceased, or you have left home due to an abusive situation, answer “Yes” to the Student Unusual Circumstances question on the FAFSA to complete the application without their information, then you may submit an Unusual Circumstances form.