Adding more than 10 schools to the FAFSA is easy (and necessary for many students)

How to add more schools to the FAFSA?

If you are a student applying for financial aid to pay for college you are probably getting familiar with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (or FAFSA as it is commonly referred to), which is the application that is required to receive aid from the United States government. One of the most confusing things about the FAFSA is that there are only 10 spots to list your colleges. Does this mean that you can only apply for financial aid at 10 colleges?

Absolutely not! You can apply for financial aid at any number of colleges and universities once you receive your Student Aid Report (SAR) and submit your FAFSA for your initial schools.

Once you do all of this, here are a few ways to add more schools to the FAFSA:

1. Make FAFSA Corrections
2. Add schools over the phone
3. Add colleges with a paper Student Aid Report (SAR)

Make FAFSA Corrections.

When you login to your Federal Student Aid page, you can click on ‘Make FAFSA Corrections.’ Once you do that, you can remove the current colleges listed, add additional schools, and then submit the “corrections”! We know it feels weird to remove the schools, but don’t worry–the colleges will still have the data you originally submitted!

Add schools over the phone.

You can call the Federal Student Information Center and add the schools over the phone. When you call, you will need the Data Release Number (DRN) from your Student Aid Report or FAFSA confirmation page.

Add colleges with a paper SAR.

There is also a paper option if you have a paper Student Aid Report. Note that you can only change up to four colleges with this option as opposed to 10 online.

Tips for adding additional colleges to the FAFSA

1. Remember, you should list public in-state colleges first. Some states will award state grants to students who enroll at one of the state’s public colleges so you can miss out if you don’t do this.
2. If you submit your FAFSA and then decide to apply to other colleges, you can complete the above steps to ensure that you are considered for financial aid.
3. Some colleges also require other aid forms such as the CSS profile, so you will want to make sure you know which forms are required, as well as the necessary deadlines.