Undergraduate Applicant Checklist

A complete financial aid application consists of:

• CSS PROFILE Application (available after October 1)
• Obtain Federal PIN for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Two separate PINs are needed to sign FAFSA electronically. One for the student and one for the parent.
• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Available after January 1st.
• IRS Data Retrieval Tool: We encourage filers to select the IRS Data Retrieval tool when filing the FAFSA to transfer 2012 federal income tax return information directly to the FAFSA. Tax data should be available through IRS Data Retrieval process 1-2 weeks after electronically filing 2012 federal income tax return(s).  If mailing tax return(s), it may take 6-8 weeks for data to be available through IRS Data Retrieval process. Using the IRS Data Retrieval tool will lower the chances that your FAFSA will be selected for verification. If you are not able to file your tax return by the priority filing date, you should still submit the 2013-14 FAFSA using estimated tax information and meet Goucher's priority filing date.  You may return to the FAFSA website after filing taxes and use the Data Retrieval process to update tax information.
• If your FAFSA is selected for federal verification, you must submit (1) federal tax transcript for student (if filed) and parent(s) for dependent students and (2) federal verification worksheet.

Remember to keep copies of all the above documents for your records.