Students who need assistance with their 2019-2020 Free Application for Federal Student Aid can attend Super Saturday on the Edinburg or Brownsville campuses.
The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Main Building and in Brownsville and in the Visitors Center in Edinburg.
Super Saturday is an event that will help explain the FAFSA and Texas Application for State Financial Aid, or TASFA, application processes. Students will be able to receive help from staff to complete their applications and can bring their parents.
The priority deadline for the FAFSA is Jan. 15.
Jael Perez, the associate director of Financial Aid Operations, said submitting the FAFSA early is important.
“The FAFSA process is not just submitting the application,” Perez said. “Sometimes, students can be selected for a process called verification in which they need to submit additional documents.”
Marla Perez, a computer science junior, said that even though she filled out her application early in the past, she was still required to submit additional documentation that lengthened the financial aid process.
“I had submitted my FAFSA, like, the very first day that it opened, so, you know, I spent all these months thinking that I had completed my FAFSA,” Marla Perez said. “It was coming to the semester, the next semester starting, when they told me that I was missing some information on my FAFSA.”
The earlier a FAFSA is submitted, the more time students will have to provide additional documents, if needed. If an application is submitted late or with not enough time for verification, students run the risk of not receiving their financial aid on time.
Jael Perez said it is also beneficial to submit an application early because certain forms of financial aid are limited in funding, such as the Texas Public Educational Grant (TPEG) and the TEXAS Grant.
“The FAFSA can be submitted online at www.fafsa.gov,” Perez said. “The student will need income information from the 2017 income year, so tax returns from the student and the parents, W-2’s and any other income information that the family may have. So, for example, if they receive certain benefits, such as veteran benefits and disability benefits.”
Eliseo Alexander Cobos, a biomedical sciences freshman, encourages students to visit the Financial Aid Office to receive help with their applications.
“Go to the service desks, like the Tower,” Cobos said. “Ask questions, of course, to those people and they’ll help you out. They’ll be able to take you in the right direction on what you need to do.”
Students can visit the U Central locations on both campuses without an appointment to receive help with the application process. The Financial Aid Office is located in the Main Building Tower on the Brownsville campus and on the first floor in the Student Services building on the Edinburg campus.
Students who are not eligible for financial aid, may apply for scholarships and “other forms of financial assistance, including institutional aid programs, tuition funding for military veterans and their families, and waiver programs from the state of Texas that allow certain out-of-state or nonresident students to pay in-state tuition,” according to the Financial Aid webpage.
The final deadline to submit a FAFSA is June 30, 2019. For more information, visit www.utrgv.edu/finaid.
