helping students apply for financial aid
last year 2.3 billion dollars worth of
federal grants were not used by college
bound students a lot of money
the Duval County School District is
holding meetings at schools around the
area this month and next month to
explain how to fill out the FAFSA form
never heard of it well that's what it's
called we're gonna explain what it is
coming up in just a second tonight at
6:00 though parents can get their
questions answered about this format
angle wood high school joining me this
morning Wendy Dunlap director of the
high school programs for Duval County
Public Schools and Isabel Correa who has
just completed her FAFSA form online so
she's really going to tell you how hard
it is or not so hard or how difficult it
might have been Wendy let me start with
you good morning to both of you what is
it for parents who maybe haven't even
started thinking about how they're gonna
swing paying for all of this what is
FAFSA okay FAFSA is the federal
application for student financial aid
and it's what students need to complete
if they're interested in going to
college because the federal government
will look over their information to
determine how much money that they
qualify for and so when you say qualify
that certainly suggests financial aid
meaning money that you don't have to pay
back but is there is part of this also
in addition to grants also money that's
loans that you do have to pay that some
families will not be eligible for the
grants that you don't have to pay back
but they do offer low-interest loans and
so we encourage families if that's
available for you then that's an avenue
that you can use to pay for your college
now does this apply mostly for people
who you know they come from maybe a one
income household who just know there is
no way that I can afford or maybe some
more maybe middle-class you know parents
who don't realize that they do qualify
cooley to get access to some money
absolutely and that's the myth that
people have to get over because a lot of
families feel like I make too much money
I'm not going to qualify and so we
encourage all families to qualify
because if you don't go through this
process when you go to the college of
university they aren't going to be able
to give you institutional funds because
first they want to see if the federal
government is there anything that they
will be able to arm to give you to fund
you that is
Fortin point for those of you listening
this morning so is about let me bring
you into this conversation because one
of them one of the other kind of force
of one of four Mis here is is that you
know students and parents tend to think
that this is such a long process it's so
difficult that you'll never be able to
answer any of the questions how was your
experience it was actually pretty easy
ash general questions just as what your
name is what grades you are GPA what
colleges you're trying to go to and then
it just asks about your parents income
their wages and then the only difficult
part of it is that I applied October 1st
which is the opening day for FAFSA the
only thing is the website kept crashing
cuz of how many people were applying but
it's not that hard of a process but you
need to have mom or dad somebody who
isn't kind of in charge of your
financial you know back rounding your
family to be there with you to answer
some questions right okay because you
don't want to have to go back and start
the process okay so let's talk about
some other things apparently there's a
lot of people I didn't realize is who
don't go to the correct website there's
some confusion about that absolutely the
correct website is the gov so we want to
make sure everyone understands this is a
federal document so you don't want to go
to calm and the hallways and encourage
families to understand the first F and
FAFSA is free so you never want to go
anywhere where they're asking you to pay
any type of money okay so and I want to
just say it out loud so that everybody
understands is it's FAFSA which is FA F
s a.gov and of course we'll find that on
news for Jax later this morning not
filling out the form and thankfully
Isabelle did not make this mistake not
filling filling it out though soon
enough can be a problem not just maybe
associated with having trouble getting
on and crashing but but also I mean is
that Rutte money eventually run out
well we encourage families to do it as
soon as possible because the sooner that
you do it you are eligible for a larger
amount of the monies that's available so
for the state of Florida the deadline is
May 15th
but each college and university
establishes their own internal deadlines
so we always encourage families whatever
school you're interested in and make
sure that you know what their financial
aid deadline is and Isabel did you find
out kind of right away what financial
aid might be available to you or is
there a waiting period um it depends on
what school you're trying to apply for I
know you and F
not sure about that but I know Rafa CJ
they have until maybe March so it's like
every school has a different deadline
but it's always good to make sure for
which school you go to so what do you
want to be when you grow up I want to be
a nurse so I'm going to school for my
BSN good I think tells me you're going
to be very successful means so much to
our viewers at home and to you as well
when they appreciate important
information you know if you can't make
it to Englewood tonight there are events
at schools around the area as I
mentioned the beginning until the end of
next month we have posted a complete
list of times and locations inside this
story on news for Jax comm you can also
meet with financial aid experts from
FSCJ UNF and J u at the Jacksonville
national college fair which is on
Saturday October 13th so next Saturday
that's of the prime Osborne Convention
Center from 9 o'clock in the morning
until 1:00