Application Process

*SWTC's Federal Code is 030087.

Adult students are encouraged to apply for financial aid. Students can complete the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" (FAFSA) in print or online athttps://studentaid.gov. Identify SWTC as your school choice on the FAFSA application. Application forms can also be obtained by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED AID. Students are directed to read the instructions carefully when completing the FAFSA. All records and other materials used in completing the application should be saved. This information may be needed later to prove the information submitted is correct.

The 2024-2025 FAFSA will be available for students to apply beginning on December 31, 2023. The 2022 income information will be used to determine financial eligibility for career majors taken in the 2024-2025 school year.

Anyone who provides information on your FAFSA form will be considered a contributor. It refers to anyone (you, your spouse, your biological or adoptive parent, or your parent's spouse) who's asked to provide their information, consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred automatically from the IRS into the FAFSA for, and signature on your FAFSA form.

Creating a StudentAid.gov Account

To start your online 2024-2025 FAFSA form, you will need create your StudentAid.gov account. When you create your account, enter your name and Social Security Number (SSN) exactly as they appear on your social security card.

For the 2024-2025 FAFSA form, every contributor who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form - needs a StudentAid.gov account before accessing and completing their section of the online form. Note: Contributors without a SSN can create a StudentAid.gov account to fill out their portion of a student's 2024-25 FAFSA form online.

Gathering the Documents Needed To Apply for 2024-2025 FAFSA Form

You might need the following information for documents as you fill out the 2024-25 FAFSA form:

• Your parents' SSNs if you're a dependent student

• Tax returns

• Records of child support received

• Current balances of cash, savings, and checking accounts

• Net worth of investments, business, and farm

If you are starting the 2024-2025 FAFSA form for the first time on FAFSA.gov, select "Start New Form" and enter your account username and password to access the FAFSA form.

Determining Your Dependency Status

The FAFSA form asks a series of questions that determine whether you are a dependent or independent student for purposes of applying for federal student aid. If you are a dependent student, you must repot parent information, as well as your own information, on your application. If you're curious, you can find out now whether you're a dependent student.

Reporting Parents' Information

If you're a dependent student, you'll need to report parent information on your FAFSA form. Visit our page on reporting parent information to find out who counts as your parent, what to do if you don't live with your parents, and what to do if you don't have access to your parents' financial information.

Is My Parent A Contributor When I Fill Out My 2024-25 FAFSA® Form? graphic-Helps dependent students determine which parent's information to include in the 2024-25 FAFSA form.

Who Is My Parent When I Fill Out the 2023-24 FAFSA® Form? graphic-Helps dependent students determine which parent's information to include in the 2023-24 FAFSA form.

Reporting Spouse's Information

If you are married (and not separated) and filed taxes jointly with your spouse, then you'll report your spouse's information on the 2024-25 FAFSA form, but they will not be identified as a contributor. But if you're married (and not separated) and didn't file taxes jointly with your current spouse, your spouse will be considered a contributor on your 2024-25 FAFSA form.

Providing Financial Information

The FAFSA form asks for financial information, includina information from tax forms and balances of savings and checking accounts.

• The 2024-25 FAFSA form asks for 2022 tax information.

• The 2023–24 FAFSA form asks for 2021 tax information.

Note: If your or your family's financial situation has changed significantly from what is reflected on your federal income tax return (for example, if you've lost a job or otherwise experienced a drop in income), you may be eligible to have your financial aid adjusted. Complete the FAFSA questions as instructed on the application (including the transfer of federal tax return and income information), submit your FAFSA form, then contact the school you plan to attend to discuss how your current financial situation has changed. Note that the school's decision is final and cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education.

What to Do If Your Parents' (or Your) Marital Status Has Changed Since Taxes Were Filed

Here are some tips for this type of situation using the example of the 2024-25 FAFSA form:

• The FAFSA form asks for marital status "as of today" (the day it's filled out). So, if the student or parent is married now but wasn't in 2022 (and therefore didn't file taxes as married), the spouse's 2022 income will need to be added to the FAFSA form.

• Similarly, if the student or parent filed 2022 taxes as married but is no longer married when filling out the FAFSA form, the spouse's income will need to be subtracted.

• And if the student or parent was married when filing 2022 taxes, then got divorced and is now married to someone else, the spouse will need to report their own income as a contributor.

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

Automatically Transferring Your Tax Information

2024-25 FAFSA® Form

The Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange, replacing the IRS Data Retrieval Tool starting with the 2024-25 FAFSA form, will transfer contributors' federal tax information from the IRS directly into your FAFSA form.

All contributors must provide consent and approval to

• disclose their personally identifiable information provided on the FAFSA form to the IRS for matching purposes;

• obtain their federal tax information from the IRS via direct data exchange;

• allow the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to use their federal tax information to determine the student's eligibility and amount of federal student aid:

• allow ED to share their federal tax information with colleges, career/trade schools, and state higher education agencies for use in awarding and administering financial aid; and

• allow ED to reuse their federal tax information on another FAFSA applicant's form (e.g., if a parent has multiple dependent students or a parent's own FAFSA form).

NOTE: Even if contributors don't have an SSN, didn't file taxes, or filed taxes outside of the U.S., they will still need to provide consent and approval.

IMPORTANT: If a required contributor doesn't provide consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred into the FAFSA form, you (the student) will not be eligible for federal student aid— even if the contributor manually enters tax information into the FAFSA form.

To ensure the information is secure, the federal tax information won't display on the FAFSA site or the FAFSA Submission Summary.

Signing and Submitting the FAFSA® Form

2024-25 FAFSA® Form

After you complete your required section of the FAFSA form online, you'll acknowledge the terms and conditions of the form and electronically sign your section. You can then submit your section of the FAFSA form. However, your FAFSA form won't be considered complete until all required contributors provide their information on the FAFSA form, give their consent and approval to transfer federal tax information into the form, and provide their signatures.

After you and your parent (and/or any other required contributor) sign and submit the FAFSA form, the form will be considered complete and will be submitted for processing.

If you submit the FAFSA form, you'll see a confirmation page that displays your completion date, data release number, and next steps. You'll also see your estimated Student Aid Index (a number used by college and career/trade schools to determine your eligibility for federal student aid), estimated Federal Pell Grant eligibility, and information about other federal student aid for which you may be eligible. This confirmation page is emailed automatically to you for your records.

Note: The Student Aid Index on the confirmation page is only an estimate. The official Student Aid Index will appear on the FAFSA Submission Summary.

Taking the Next Steps

Once you've completed your FAFSA form, there are more steps you have to take before you receive financial aid. Make sure you know what happens after you submit your FAFSA form.

Students can submit their FAFSA on the Web at bttps://studentaid.gov, they can mail the paper FAFSA with the envelope provided in the paper form, or the FAFSA can be sent electronically through the Financial Aid Office. TTT users (for the hearing impaired) may call 1-800-730-8913.

This Student Aid Index is the result of computations established by Congress involving the financial and non-financial data submitted on the application that indicates how much of your family’s financial resources should be available to help pay for school. The method of computation is applied to all dependent and independent students uniformly. Students should review all the information on the FAFSA SUBMISSION SUMMARY. If any changes are needed on the FAFSA Submission Summary, the student can make corrections online using his/her FSA ID, or the student can resubmit by mail part two of the FAFSA SUBMISSION SUMMARY to the Pell Grant processor following the directions for making corrections on the form, or the Financial Aid Coordinator can submit the corrections electronically. After submission of any corrections, if necessary on the FAFSA Submission Summary, and if the student meets all eligibility requirements, they will receive an award letter notifying them of the amount of their Pell Grant award, any required documents, and projected payment schedule.