by Tala Kamil | staff writer

The FAFSA application process  opens on Oct. 1,providing access to financial aid for students applying to college.

“The FAFSA is your financial aid info and assistance with getting into college and anything in that nature, which the government can help with too,” Justin Aguilar from San Antonio Education Partnership said. 

Forms can be filled out on the FAFSA website.

“You yourself can fill out the forms, the parents can fill out the form, but there’s a portion that the parents need to fill out and there’s a portion that you have to fill out. So you basically fill it out then send it to the college then they determine whether you are a candidate for some either grant money or scholarship money or either you can have loans. But then you can decide whether to use these loans or not,” social studies teacher Ruth Kimmel said.

Emancipated minors are students who are legally free of their parents, and vice versa. Said students can fill out the FAFSA as an independent and therefore don’t need their parents to complete it. 

“It usually goes on a case by case basis. Some students might be an emancipated minor or sometimes if you have a baby and providing for that child, then you don’t have to fill out anything for that parent since you’re your own person,” Aguilar said. 

The FAFSA is required in order to gain student aid benefits.

“A lot of students do not know that they have assistance for college. I was nervous about how I was going to pay for [college]. The tuition rates were always freaking me out and I didn’t know anything about financial aid until I made it to my senior year of highschool. I also did not know what FAFSA was,” Aguilar said. “However, I met with the counselor at San Antonio Edu. Partnership and they broke it down for me. I never got to work in highschool which is good, I got assistance, and they also introduced me to things I could apply for. Overall, it opens up the advantage for students to enter college.”