FAFSA

Applying for financial aid is a free process.

In order to complete the FAFSA, you will need your prior year tax form (IRS Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ or you may use the IRS Data Retrieval). For example, when completing the 2022-2023 FAFSA, you will be asked to provide information from your 2020 tax form.

There is not a priority deadline for the State of Tennessee, but the Tennessee Student Assistance Corp. (TSAC) advises Tennessee students to complete the FAFSA as early as possible after January 1st to be considered for state grant funds.

The FAFSA is an online form. You are filing a federal form and reporting your information to the U.S. Department of Education via a secure government website.

You may list up to ten (10) schools to receive your FAFSA results. If you do not list Columbia State Community College on the FAFSA, the Office of Financial Aid will not get your FAFSA results or award you financial aid.

• Columbia State Community College Federal School Code: 003483
• In order to electronically sign your FAFSA, student and parent will need to create a FSA ID.
• To complete the FAFSA, please go to www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Once you submit your FAFSA, it is processed by the Central Processing System (CPS).

The CPS runs all your data through a complex equation called the Federal Methodology.

When the CPS has finished analyzing your data through the Federal Methodology, an email will be sent to the email address listed by the student on the FAFSA.

This email will contain a summary of the FAFSA results called the Student Aid Report (SAR).

The Student Aid Report will list all the information that you provided on the FAFSA, as well as your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

Your EFC is NOT a bill. It is not a statement of what you will have to pay for college.

The EFC is how much a family “could” contribute to a college education, not what they are expected to pay.

The government uses the EFC to determine if you are eligible for Pell grant; the State of Tennessee will use it to determine if you are eligible for a TSAA Grant; and Columbia State will use it to determine if you are eligible for other types of need-based aid.

When you receive your SAR, please review the information carefully to insure that you reported everything accurately.

You may then go back to the FAFSA website and make any corrections that you need to make.

Your SAR will note if you were randomly selected by the CPS for a process called “verification.” Click Frequently Asked Questions and learn more about Verification.

Once you complete the FAFSA the Office of Financial Aid will receive your data electronically from the CPS.

Beyond filing the FAFSA, there may be additional paperwork required by the Office of Financial Aid.

Once you have completed and submitted all required paperwork, the Office of Financial Aid will determine what types of aid you can receive and how much you can get. Awarded financial aid will be visible to you on your myChargerNet account.

Once aid is awarded, an email will be sent from the Office of Financial Aid to your Columbia State email account.

To view the status of required forms, to view your awards and to check your email, click the Student tab on myChargerNet. 

Remember, completing the FAFSA does NOT automatically make you eligible for scholarships.

Each scholarship usually has its own application and awarding criteria.

Click to learn more about scholarship.