<P> Students who are military veterans and active duty service members may apply for financial aid by filing a FAFSA even if they also apply for education and housing benefits offered by the Post-9 / 11 G.I. Bill and its accompanying Yellow Ribbon program . The amount of military aid a student receives for a college education does not defer eligibility or reduce the amount of student aid that student could receive from the four federal grant programs--Pell, SMART, FSEOG, and TEACH--and many of the state student aid programs . </P> <P> Beginning with the 2017 - 2018 academic year, the FAFSA is made available to the public on October 1 . The 2016 - 2017 academic year was the final time the FAFSA was made available on January 1 . The US Department of Education made the FAFSA available earlier to more closely align the timing of the financial aid application process with the typical college application process . Additionally, 2 - year old US tax information is used to complete the financial sections of the FAFSA beginning with the 2017 - 2018 academic year . This change in using "prior - prior tax year" information enables families to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool in the FAFSA to verify their tax information without a delay from the IRS processing tax information . Some financial aid is provided on a first - come, first - served basis, and students are encouraged to submit a FAFSA as soon as possible . </P> <P> According to the U.S. Department of Education's website, students have three preparation options: </P> <Ul> <Li> online at fafsa.ed.gov </Li> <Li> by telephone at 1 - 800 - 433 - 3243 </Li> <Li> by paper </Li> </Ul>

Where does the money for fafsa come from