Financial Aid 101

The FAFSA is free to complete and opens on October 1st each year(with the exception of this FAFSA cycle which will open in December 2023). Students should complete the form as soon as possible in order to be eligible for aid.

Items Needed to Create an Account

• Mobile phone number and/or email address

New This Year: Parents do NOT need a social security number to create an FSA ID!

The FAFSA questions ask for information about you (your name, date of birth, address, etc.) and about your financial situation. Depending on your circumstances (for instance, whether you’re a U.S. citizen or what tax form you used), you might need the following information or documents as you fill out the FAFSA application:

• Your Social Security number (it’s important that you enter it correctly on the FAFSA form!)

• Your parents’ Social Security numbers (if they have them) if you are a dependent student

• Your driver’s license number if you have one

• Your Alien Registration number if you are not a U.S. citizen

• Federal tax information, tax documents, or tax returns, 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 Form1040
  • Foreign tax return or IRS Form 1040-NR
  • 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.
  

  
  

The 2025–26 FAFSA changes include the following:

• Every contributor—anyone (student,the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse) who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form—will need an FSA ID to access and complete their section of the online form.
• All contributors must provide consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred directly into the student's FAFSA form via direct data exchange with the IRS. If any contributor doesn't provide consent and approval, submission of the FAFSA form will still be allowed. However, a Student Aid Index, which replaces the Expected Family Contribution, will not be calculated and the student won't be eligible for federal student aid.
• Students will be able to list up to 20 colleges on their online FAFSA form and 10 colleges on the FAFSA PDF.
• Users can start or access the FAFSA form by visiting StudentAid.gov and logging in, where they'll see the link to the FAFSA form on their Dashboard.

We encourage ALL students to complete the FAFSA.

If you do not think your family will qualify for federal aid, we still encourage you to complete the form. Many scholarships, including merit-based opportunities and delegate or senatorial scholarships, require a completed FAFSA.

If you think you will be attending CCBC, you should still complete the form. Both the county and state College Promise Programs require a completed FAFSA.

If you think you will be heading straight to work or joining the military/police/fire/EMS service, you should still complete the form. Life happens and plans can change. It’s better to have a “Plan B” in place and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

If your parents do not have a social security number, you should still complete the form. You can zero out the number on the application, and print out the signature page to mail in.

• The Maryland State deadline to file your FAFSA is March 1st.
• Most colleges have their own deadline, often much earlier than March 1st, so be sure to check with each school.

Students will be notified via email if they have been awarded an Educational Assistance Grant or Guaranteed Access Grant. This normally occurs in late April.

Students must accept their award online through their MDCAPS account. They will have up to 6 weeks to accept or decline. Failure to accept the award within that timeframe will result in the award being canceled and the award will NOT be reinstated.

Students are encouraged to monitor their "Check Application Status" in MDCAPS to verify if any additional information is needed to claim their award. If additional information is needed, they must submit all required documents by the deadline.

Additionally, there are a number of private scholarships and organizations available to help undocumented or international students.

The CSS Profile is free for domestic undergraduate students whose family income is up to $100,000. The fee for the initial application is $25. Additional reports are $16. Payment may be made via credit or debit card.

To complete the form, students will need their most recent tax returns, W-S forms and other records of current year income, records of untaxed income and benefits, assets, and bank statements.

Some scholarships are merit based while others are geared towards a particular group of people like women, BIPOC, military families, etc. While most scholarships are specifically for current seniors in high school, there are many available to younger students as well.

Students can access scholarships through Naviance and any other tools utilized by their high school to promote scholarship applications (Schoology, email, newsletters, etc.).