To be considered an independent student, you must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• You were born before January 1, 1976
• You are married
• You are enrolled in a graduate or professional educational program
• You have legal dependents other than a spouse
• You are an orphan or ward of the court (or were a ward of the court until age 18)
• You are a veteran of the US Armed Forces

If you are independent, you must report only your financial information (and your spouse's if you are married). See www.ed.gov for information regarding special or unusual circumstances.

If you have any queries about completing the FAFSA, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED.

Making a mistake on your FAFSA can delay the processing of your application. Most mistakes on the FAFSA can be avoided by carefully reading the instructions and questions.

The deadline for receiving the application is: June 30, 2000 for the 1999-2000 school year. If your application has not been received by this date, it will NOT be processed, and you will not be eligible for federal student aid for that academic year.

About two to three weeks after you submit the FAFSA (4 - 6 weeks if you sent it by mail), you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR will reflect the information that you provided on the FAFSA. If the information you provided is complete, your SAR will also have your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

The EFC is the amount of money your family will be expected to contribute to your education. Using your EFC, your financial aid administrator determines how much federal student aid you can get.

Carefully review all of the information on the SAR to make sure there are no errors. You can correct any mistakes by writing the correct information on Part 2 of the SAR if you applied by mail. If you applied electronically and there are errors on your electronic SAR you will need to ask your school to make any corrections electronically, or get a copy of your SAR from Federal Student Aid Information Center (1-319-337-5665).

Each school sets its own deadline for students to apply for aid from campus-based programs and for applying for its own aid. The deadlines are likely to be much earlier than the FAFSA deadline of June 30, 2000.

Despite the cost of post-secondary education, knowledge is a valuable commodity and worth the effort of paying off your student loans at the end of your university or college life. There are loans, grants and scholarships available and you should take some time to fill out a few application forms. You never know what financial aid might come your way!

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