How to Apply for Financial Aid

All Financial Aid Starts with the FAFSA and These Steps

Step 1: Create a StudentAid.gov Account

Every contributor—anyone (you, your spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or your parent's spouse) 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. We strongly recommend you and your contributor(s) create StudentAid.gov accounts before starting your FAFSA form. When you create your account, be careful to enter your name and Social Security number (SSN) exactly as they appear on your Social Security card. Contributors can access their StudentAid.gov account by using their FSA ID (account username and password). Note: Contributors without an SSN can create a StudentAid.gov account to fill out their portion of your FAFSA form online. To start the online FAFSA form, select “Start New Form.” You’ll be taken to the “Log In” page to enter your account username and password. After logging in, you’ll be given the option to select your applicable role to fill out the FAFSA form: “Student” or “Parent.” You (the student) should select “Student.” If a parent wants to start their dependent child’s FAFSA form, they should select the “Parent” option.

Note: Contributors without an SSN can create a StudentAid.gov account to fill out their portion of your FAFSA form online.

To start the online FAFSA form, select “Start New Form.” You’ll be taken to the “Log In” page to enter your account username and password. After logging in, you’ll be given the option to select your applicable role to fill out the FAFSA form: “Student” or “Parent.” You (the student) should select “Student.” If a parent wants to start their dependent child’s FAFSA form, they should select the “Parent” option.

Step 2: Gathering Needed Documents

You might need the following information or documents as you fill out the FAFSA form:

• Your parents’ SSNs if they have SSNs and you're a dependent student
• Tax returns
• Records of child support received
• Current balances of cash, savings, and checking accounts
• Net worth of investments, businesses, and farms

Keep these records! You may need them again. Do not mail these supporting records to us unless otherwise instructed to do so.

Step 3: Starting your FAFSA^® Form

The 2025–26 FAFSA form is available now for the award year that runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. We encourage you to fill out the form as soon as possible on or after the applicable FAFSA launches to meet FAFSA federal, state, and school deadlines.

FAFSA^® Filing Options

You may choose any of these methods to file a FAFSA form:

• Log in at fafsa.gov to apply online
• Complete a FAFSA PDF (note: you must print out and mail the FAFSA PDF for processing)

If you are starting the FAFSA form for the first time on fafsa.gov, select “Log In To Start” and enter your account username and password to access the FAFSA form.

If you are applying for a summer session, contact the financial aid office at your college or career/trade school to find out which school year you should select when you complete your FAFSA form.

Listing Colleges

While completing the FAFSA form, you must list at least one school to receive your information. The schools you list will use your FAFSA information to determine the types and amounts of student aid you may receive.

Touro University School code is 010142.

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 report 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.

Providing Financial Information

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

• The 2025–26 FAFSA form asks for 2023 tax information.

Automatically Transferring Your Tax Information

Your contributor’s federal tax information will be transferred from the IRS into your FAFSA form.

All contributors must provide consent and approval for the U.S. Department of Education to

• disclose their personally identifiable information provided on the FAFSA form to the IRS to match their information with their tax information;
• obtain their federal tax information from the IRS and include with the FAFSA form;
• use their federal tax information to determine your Student Aid Index and Federal Pell Grant eligibility;
• share their federal tax information with colleges, career/trade schools, and state higher education agencies for use in awarding and administering financial aid; and
• reuse their federal tax information on another FAFSA applicant's form (e.g., if a parent has multiple dependent students or for a parent's own FAFSA form as an aid applicant).

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

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, 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.

Check Your FAFSA^® Form Status

Check the status of your form by logging in to your StudentAid.gov account and selecting your FAFSA submission from the “My Activity” section of your account Dashboard.

If you submitted a paper FAFSA form, you can check its status after it has been processed (roughly 7–10 days from the date mailed).

The status of your application will be one of the following:

• Draft: Your section of the FAFSA form is incomplete.
• In Progress: You provided your consent, approval, and signature to your section of the FAFSA form, but the FAFSA form has not been submitted yet.
• In Review: The FAFSA form was submitted but hasn’t been processed yet.
• Action Required: You are missing your consent and approval or signature; or the FAFSA form was processed, but a correction is required.
• Processed: Your application was processed successfully. No further action is needed.
• Closed: Your FAFSA form was never submitted and can no longer be submitted because the federal FAFSA deadline passed.

Review Your FAFSA Submission Summary

The FAFSA Submission Summary is a summary of the FAFSA data you submitted. You (the student) will get your FAFSA Submission Summary after your FAFSA form is processed. Look over your FAFSA Submission Summary carefully, make sure you didn’t make a mistake on your FAFSA form, and make corrections to your FAFSA data if necessary. Find out more about the FAFSA Submission Summary, its purpose, how the method you use to file your FAFSA form determines when you’ll get the FAFSA Submission Summary, and what you should do with the FAFSA Submission Summary.

What Not To Expect From the FAFSA Submission Summary

The FAFSA Submission Summary won’t tell you how much financial aid you’ll get. Also, if you provided consent and approval to obtain your federal tax information from the IRS, the FAFSA Submission Summary won’t show the details of your (or parent) income and tax information.

Provide Required Verification

You might see a note on your FAFSA Submission Summary saying you’ve been selected for verification; or your school might contact you to inform you that you’ve been selected. Verification is the process your school uses to confirm that the data reported on your FAFSA form is accurate. If you’re selected for verification, your school will request additional documentation that supports the information you reported.

Don’t assume you’re being accused of doing anything wrong. Some people are selected for verification at random; and some schools verify all students' FAFSA forms. All you need to do is provide the documentation your school asks for—and be sure to do so by the school’s deadline, or you won’t be able to get federal student aid.

In most cases, you won't have to verify income and tax information. However, if you are selected for verification, the school may ask you to submit a tax transcript or other documentation to confirm the information you reported.