You have finally finished your high school career and you are ready to step into the world of college life. While college is an extremely exciting time where you can learn all kinds of new things, there some aspects of college life that are not as pretty. If you’ve ever heard the running joke of “broke college students” you know funds during this time can be a point of pressure for college students. One way to help save some of that money is applying for financial aid, so you can have some extra cash. This is not necessarily a difficult task but it is very important, and its importance can make some new college students a little nervous about where to start. Thankfully we are here to guide you through this process.

Before you actually start applying you will need to gather a few things, to be completely prepared. According to the financial aid webpage here are some important things to have on hand for this process:

What to Gather
  • Social Security number(s)
  • Your driver’s license number, if you have one
  • Your Alien Registration number, if you are not a U.S. citizen
  • Federal tax information, including IRS W-2 information, for you (and your spouse, if you are married) and for your parents if you are a dependent student:
    • IRS 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ and 1099(s)
    • Foreign tax return and/or
    • Tax return for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or Palau
  • Records of your untaxed income, such as child support received, interest income, and veterans noneducation benefits, for you, and for your parents, if you are a dependent student
  • Information on cash; savings and checking account balances; investments, including stocks and bonds and real estate but not including the home in which you live; and business and farm assets for you, and for your parents if you are a dependent student

Your next step is to complete the FASFA. However, before we just into the FASFA there is one optional step. You could go ahead and create an FSA ID. This ID will make signing the FASFA a much quicker and easier process, though it is not required. There is also an option to create the ID while you are completing the FASFA, but if you wanted to you could create it ahead of time. If you would like to create your FSA ID go to https://fsaid.ed.gov/.

Moving on to the FASFA, this is a slightly time-consuming project, however, if you would a guide while completing this I wrote an entire step by step process of how to complete the FASFA here.

Once you have completed your FASFA it is time to apply to Gulf Coast State College. this can be done by navigating to https://www.gulfcoast.edu/admissions/admissions-application-type.html and following the instructions.

Once you apply you will eventually receive an email about your acceptance. Once you are accepted you will be issued a Gulf Coast student email account and a Lighthouse account. Both of these locations are where you will receive updates about your Finacial Aid Status. If you are awarded Financial Aid all the details of your award, like what type of award it is, and how much it is, can be found in your Lighthouse account.

To continue to keep your Financial Aid award make sure to submit a FASFA each year with updated information about you and your financial situation.

If you have any other questions about applying for Financial Aid at Gulf Coast State college contact the Financial Aid Office at fa@gulfcoast.edu.

About the Author

Brookelyn Flatt

Student - Spring 2019