Blizzard Blues and the FAFSA

Based on the view outside of my suburban DC home, I can confidently report that today’s FAFSA completion workshops sponsored by College Access Fairfax have been cancelled. The Maryland College Goal Sunday events scheduled for the Ebenezer African Methodist Church in Prince George’s County and Loyola University in Baltimore no doubt suffered the same fate.

The Blizzard of 2010 has effectively shut us down. Many are without electricity and the snow just keeps falling. No end seems in sight.

But if you are lucky enough to have access to a computer and the internet, it still may be a good day to gather together tax materials and get started completing your FAFSA. One major college deadline has come and gone, but the second most popular financial aid due date—February 15—is right around the corner.

Locally, American University, Catholic, the University of Maryland, Richmond University, the College of William and Mary, Howard, Goucher College and Hood require all financial aid materials to be submitted by February 15th. Several take both the FAFSA and the CSS Financial Aid Profile.

If you still need help with the FAFSA, most of the cancelled financial aid workshops have snow dates and are rescheduled. In Fairfax, a series of snow dates including after school in a few cases are listed on the College Access Fairfax website. The event in Prince George’s County will take place—weather permitting—on February 14th. Loyola doesn’t list a snow date.

So if you’re in the Washington metropolitan area, looking at the snow continuing to come down, now may be a good time to fix a cup of cocoa and begin organizing those tax documents. Take it from the Charta Squad shout out to all you FAFSA soldiers, “Early bird gets the worm--so file early, see.”

If you have any questions or need additional assistance, contact the FAFSA on the Web Consumer Service either online or by calling 1-800-433-3243 (1-800-4-FED-AID). Although the location of the FAFSA support center is top secret, I can assure you they are not affected by the snow.