ICAN FAFSA Appointments: You Get More Than a FAFSA Done

For twenty years, ICAN has provided an invaluable service to students/parents providing FAFSA assistance free of charge. Our appointment numbers for this great service continues to grow. When out presenting at high schools, I advertise this service to students and parents. But I also include other information about this type of appointment. You get a FAFSA completed, but you get much more than only a FAFSA. If you have your Federal Student Aid IDs completed before the appointment, we will probably have some time to cover a few topics. What else do you get?

1. What is the follow up process after the FAFSA is filed? We can explain Student Aid Reports, the verification process, and how to get tax transcripts, if needed, from www.irs.gov.

2. How do the student loans work? We encourage students to borrow as little as possible. We get this question in many of our appointments. We can direct you to the www.studentloans.gov website to get entrance counseling and the loan agreement completed.

3. Are there other loans available along with the federal loans? The Stafford Loan will continue to be the best student loan going in regard to interest rate, but we can give you information on private student loan information. We also have handouts on what to consider in the area of private loans.

4. What is the Parent PLUS Loan? We can explain the difference between the Parent PLUS Loan and private loans. We also have handouts available on this topic as well.

5. We remind you that the next FAFSA cycle will begin on October 1 of the next year.

6. Many, many miscellaneous questions that don’t fall into a particular category.

We schedule basic FAFSA appointments for 45 minutes, and the FAFSA must be the priority, but most of our advisors are skilled enough to be done well within the 45 minute appointment. We are more than glad to help you. Also go to: http://www.icansucceed.org/en/about_us/services/personal_advising_sessions/ to schedule other types of advising sessions so that we can help you even more. Remember, you get much more than just a FAFSA completed in our FAFSA appointments with a whole wide array of other various appointments available. ICAN services are fee to students and parents.


Steve - ICAN Council Bluffs Center