How to Get More Financial Aid From FAFSA or Your College

28.02.2025 06:29

Lendedu.com

Getting accepted into college is a huge achievement and an exciting occasion. But if you look closer at your acceptance letter, you might notice the financial aid package isn’t enough to cover the full cost of attending. However, that doesn’t mean you’re out of options.

Below, we’ll walk you through how to get more financial aid from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and how you can appeal to your college for more help.

Table of Contents

How FAFSA determines your financial aid

When you fill out the FAFSA, your Student Aid Index (SAI) is calculated based on your family’s reported financial resources (income and assets) minus estimated living expenses. The lower the resulting number, the greater your need.

Schools subtract that SAI from the cost of attendance. What’s left represents your financial need. Colleges will attempt to fulfill that need with grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study programs.

In some cases, schools can’t come up with the resources to fully meet your needs—meaning you’ll either need to pay out of pocket, appeal for more aid, find additional scholarships, or consider private student loans.

3 ways to get more financial aid from FAFSA

There are a few strategies to get more financial aid when filling out your FAFSA—and they’re all above board.

1. File the FAFSA as early as possible

By filling out your FAFSA as soon as it’s available, you increase your chances of getting federal grants and scholarships that are capped and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. State deadlines are often earlier than federal deadlines; filling out the FAFSA early ensures you don’t miss your state’s deadline.

Plus, the earlier you file, the earlier you can estimate how much aid you’ll get. If it looks like you won’t get much, you can start applying for external scholarships and private grants now.

Take note of key FAFSA deadlines on the official website, and put reminders on your calendar for the day the FAFSA opens. The FAFSA for the 2026-2027 school year should open Oct. 1, 2025.

2. Reduce reported income in the base year

This one’s for the parents: You should start planning the FAFSA way earlier than you’d think. That’s because the FAFSA uses your income from the base year (or “prior-prior year”). That is, Jan. 1 of your child’s sophomore year to Dec. 31 of their junior year.

To put that into perspective, if your child starts college in fall 2027, aid will be based on income from 2025.

Why does this matter? Because you’ll want to reduce your income reported in that tax year to increase your child’s potential aid. Some legal ways to do this include:

Making large business investments (i.e., write-offs) if you’re self-employed.
Asking your company to pay out an annual bonus early or late.
Taking unpaid leave.
Using tax-loss harvesting to offset capital gains.
Making larger, pre-tax contributions to your traditional (non-Roth) retirement funds.

Remember, the base year only applies to that first year of college. There will be a new base year (the year after) when your child fills out the FAFSA for their second school year. You’ll need to continue to look for ways to reduce your income for four years if you want larger aid offers each year.

3. Protect your assets

Parents, you’re still needed: FAFSA also considers some of your assets and your child’s assets when determining aid eligibility. The catch? The formula assumes parents will use up to 5.64% of their assets to pay for a child’s college, while the child’s assets are anticipated at 20%.

So what can you do? Here are some ways to shield your assets:

Move funds from your child’s bank account to their 529 college savings plan, which is considered your asset.
Move money into qualified retirement accounts, which are non-reportable assets.
Pay down debts with reportable assets, such as money in your bank account.

As a financial planner, I understand the complexities of the FAFSA form and the process of counting assets to calculate aid.

First, it helps to consider all the “reportable” assets/accounts that the FAFSA form may use to reduce your student’s eligibility for need-based financial aid. Need-based financial aid includes Federal Pell Grants, subsidized federal student loans, and the opportunity to enroll in a work-study program. Unsubsidized student loans are available to all students, regardless of financial need.

Second, look at all the accounts that are considered non-reportable assets that do not count toward the FAFSA form, such as qualified retirement plan accounts and the family’s primary home.

Lastly, once all accounts and assets have been accounted for, begin to look to best practices to reasonably convert reportable assets into non-reportable assets. In addition, using the items in this article, moving assets from your student’s name (20%) to other types of accounts with a lower reporting percentage (e.g. 529 accounts).

However, the goal of this is to only move assets that do not impact your well-being or cash flow. If you move around items that impact your or your student’s livelihood, the financial stress may be too much.

Eric Kirste , CFP®, CIMA®, AIF®

4 ways to get more financial aid from your college

Here are some ways to get more money from your chosen school:

1. Appeal for more need-based aid (FAFSA professional judgment)

Your financial aid package is never set in stone. If the offer from your school isn’t enough, it’s worth contacting the financial aid office.

Under current Department of Education guidelines, schools can make a “professional judgment” to adjust data on your FAFSA that will affect your SAI and could result in proving you have a greater need for aid. To succeed, you need to do it the right way:

Check the school’s guidelines on professional judgments: Your school’s financial aid office may have a specific process for requesting professional judgment. Scour the school’s website or politely call the office and ask for more info. Here’s how to write a financial aid appeal letter if that’s part of the process.
Do it yourself: If you’re still in high school, you may be used to your parents handling all the “tough stuff” for you. But this is your chance to show a school that you are passionate about going there and willing to take initiative.
Demonstrate your need: Things can change between filling out the FAFSA and actually getting an acceptance letter from your school. If your parents have separated, lost a job, or passed away, or your family has experienced some other kind of financial hardship, gather the documentation that proves this. There may also be special circumstances that the FAFSA simply can’t reflect, or you may have made an error when filling out the FAFSA that you’d like to correct.
Be specific and flexible: Tell your school exactly how much aid you need to make attending possible. That gives the aid office a concrete number to work toward. Be willing to accept other solutions your school offers, such as a work-study or resident advisor program.

2. Negotiate for more merit-based scholarships

Beyond demonstrating need, you may be able to negotiate with the student aid office for more merit-based aid. This department works on a finite budget, but it’s possible other students to whom they offered scholarships selected a different school—meaning there’s money up for grabs.

Ask the office if there is a formal process for negotiating, and be clear about why you’re requesting reconsideration. If you’ve improved your GPA, won an award, or achieved something big academically since applying, the school may be more enticed to offer you a larger scholarship.

If another school has offered you more aid, it’s OK to mention this. Politely explain what other schools are offering, but that you’d rather attend this school. That may help your case.

3. Apply for institutional grants and scholarships

Your financial aid package may contain scholarships through your school, but the college might also offer scholarships that require separate applications. Check your school’s website or talk to a guidance counselor to discover if there are scholarships for which you can apply.

4. Enroll in a work-study program

Work-study programs are sometimes offered as part of your aid package. These opportunities are generally flexible with your class schedule.

Work-study jobs are also often on campus, may be related to your field of study, and might even be chill enough that you can get homework done while on the clock.

How to get more financial aid for graduate school

Graduate students may have a tougher time with financial aid. Interest rates on Direct Unsubsidized Loans are more than 1.5% higher than they are for undergrads, and the borrowing amount is capped at $20,500. Grad PLUS loans can supplement, but the interest rate on those is even higher. Plus, Pell Grants are only available to undergrad students.

If you’re a grad student, you can offset the cost of college with an assistantship that offers a stipend or tuition waiver. You can also look for private scholarships or, if employed, see if your company offers tuition assistance.

What to do if you still need more financial aid

If you’ve exhausted your options to get more financial aid, you’ll need to look elsewhere for help.

Apply for outside scholarships

Outside your college, you can find plenty of external scholarships for which you may be a good candidate. An online scholarship website, like the aptly named Scholarships.com, is a good place to start. You can also check out our roundup of niche scholarships.

You can also find scholarships in your community. Your high school counselor can be a great resource for finding these; outside of their help, do your own search with different community institutions, including:

Places of worship
The chamber of commerce
Local businesses

Local scholarships may offer smaller award amounts, but there’s likely less competition—and every little bit of award money helps.

Income-share agreements (ISAs) typically don’t require a credit check, making them a good option for students who don’t qualify for federal loans and can’t get traditional private loans. ISAs have a unique repayment structure: Graduates repay the loan by giving the lender a percentage of their future income for a set number of years.

While ISAs have become less popular in recent years, there are still some companies, including Edly, that offer this form of financing. Edly is especially ideal for students going into traditionally low-paying fields; loans can go into forbearance if your post-grad salary drops below $30,000 (or if you lose your job).

Explore low-interest private student loans

We recommend accepting all federal loans before considering private loans, especially if you’re an undergrad. But if you’ve maxed out your federal aid and still need more money, private loans are an option.

To find the best private student loans with the lowest interest rates, start your search with a site like Credible. This online loan marketplace lets you compare multiple private loans in one spot.

If you’re considering taking out loans to fill the funding gap for college, ensure first that you can attend school without putting yourself or your family in financial hardship. Then, create a budget to help understand the potential cash flow needed to repay the loans. Make sure you can afford to make the payments!