Hello everyone, I’m currently attending a community college in goals of being able to transfer to a four year university. It’s been about two years that I’ve received financial aid from the FAFSA, and it came to my attention that I’m able to pause it for about two years. Considering the FAFSA covers only four years, my question is, am I able to pause the FAFSA for two years so when I transfer to a four year university, I’m able to fully take advantage of the financial aid? If so, how can I go about to pause the FAFSA? Thanks in advance.
What are you talking about…”pausing” the FAFSA? And for the record…the FAFSA is a financial aid application form…it doesn’t “give” money but is used to determine your eligibility for federally funded…and sometimes state funded need based aid. Some colleges use it for institutional aid consideration as well.
If you don’t want to receive any federally funded need based aid…or funding from your college…just don’t file the FAFSA.
Then when you want to use the FAFSA again…just remember to file it.
I know NO limit on the number of years you can skip filing the FAFSA…I don’t think there is one.
There is no limit to the number of years you can skip filing the FAFSA. If you want to wait to get aid when you are in a 4 year school, just wait until then to file the FAFSA.
But it’s important to understand that the FAFSA doesn’t just cover 4 years. There are limits to the amount of aid you can receive, but that limit isn’t 4 years. You can receive Pell for the equivalent of 6 years - although you could receive it longer than that, because it’s not actually “years.” Instead, it is based on credits (read here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/pell/calculate-eligibility). You can receive up to a total of $31,000 in undergraduate loans as a dependent student, but the limit is raised to $57,500 once you become independent. Since the amount you can borrow annually is limited, the loan eligilibity also lasts more than 4 years.
I think this student lives in Calif and is concerned about the 4 years limit to Calif aid (BOG and Cal Grants).
@ucbalumnus can you chime in and help this student?