When do you know your FAFSA amount for college?

I'm trying to figure out when I'll know how much financial aid I might receive through FAFSA. Is it after you get accepted into a college, or will you find out before? Any guidance would be super helpful!

After you've completed your FAFSA, and it's been processed, you receive what’s called a Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR gives you basic information about your eligibility for federal student aid and lists your answers to the questions on your FAFSA. One of the pieces of information contained within the SAR is your Student Aid Index (SAI), which was known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) in the past.

Your SAI is the number that's used to determine your eligibility for federal student assistance. However, it doesn't tell you how much aid you'll receive. Instead, your SAI is sent to the colleges that you listed on your FAFSA and they use it, along with other information, to determine how much financial aid you might be eligible for.

Usually, you won't receive an actual dollar amount of your financial aid package until after you've been accepted to a college and they've put together a financial aid package for you. In most cases, colleges send financial aid award letters in the spring, around the same time as acceptance letters. However, each institution’s timeline can vary slightly, so it's a good idea to reach out to the financial aid offices at the schools you’re applying to if you need more specific information.

In the meantime, many colleges have Net Price Calculators on their websites that you can use to estimate your potential financial aid package at that specific institution. Just keep in mind that these are estimates and the actual amount of aid you receive could vary.