Welcome to part 4 of the Financial Aid Finder’s five-part FAFSA Workshop. If you want to catch up on parts 1-3, follow these links:

• Essential FAFSA Documents
• FAFSA PIN
• Common FAFSA Mistakes

And remember that next week, I will be answering your FAFSA questions, so send ‘em in to me on email or leave me a comment with your queries.

Today, I am focusing on FAFSA deadlines. You would think that with something like a deadline, this post would be pretty short. But the reality is, when it comes to the FAFSA, deadlines are anything but cut and dry.

Let’s start with the obvious. The federal deadline for FAFSA on the Web applications is midnight Central Daylight time, June 30, 2009.

But June 30th is far from the end of the story and here’s why: Although the FAFSA is the form you fill out to receive *federal* student aid (student loans, grants, work study), it is also your key to state aid and some private scholarships as well.  Which means that you need to know when your state deadline is, as well as when your school requires you to have filed your FAFSA plus any scholarship that you want to apply for that requires the FAFSA.

The first step in figuring out your specific deadline requirement is to call your college’s office of financial aid. Just ask them what their deadline is — and, while you’re at, what the state deadline is.

You can also check out this list of state deadlines (scroll half way down the page) from the FAFSA website. The deadline for some states, like Connecticut, have unfortunately already passed. But most states have March – May deadlines, so you still have some time.

** Please note that if you live in one of the following states, your deadline is Sunday, March 1st.  I think I know what you will be doing this weekend!

Arizona
Idaho
Maryland
Michigan
Montana
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Tennessee
West Virginia