The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the application that you must complete to determine your eligibility for federal, state, or institutional student aid, such as Pell grants and work-study opportunities. Complete the FAFSA even if you are not sure that you are eligible for aid. You could get more than you expect, or you may be eligible for Lee L. Powers Service scholarship to cover tuition and fees.
If you will be attending Isothermal during the 2022-2023 academic year, which consists of fall 2022, spring 2023, and summer 2023, you will need to complete the 2022-2023 FAFSA.
2022-23 FAFSA for Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Summer 2023, Use 2020 tax data
Other Academic years to prepare for when filing your FAFSA
Students, parents, and borrowers are required to use a FSA ID, to access certain U.S. Department of Education websites. Your FSA ID confirms your identity when accessing your financial aid information and electronically signing your federal student aid documents. Keep this information to make reapplying for the FAFSA each year easier. You will use the same ID each year.
If the student is a dependent of a parent, the parent also needs their own FSA ID to sign the document. It’s important to understand that the student and the parent may not share an FSA ID: Your FSA ID is your signature, so it has to be unique to you. It has the same legal status as a written signature.
The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the gateway to applying for all types of financial aid. You must complete a new FAFSA for each academic year beginning in October. Start this process early, as it could take up to five weeks to finalize this process and get your offer letter to you.
Simplify the process by using the IRS Data Retrieval option when your tax return data is requested. This saves you time and expedites the application process.
After submitting your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) from the Department of Education. The SAR is a summary of your FAFSA submission but is important for us to determine the types of aid we can offer you.
The U.S. Department of Education uses your FAFSA to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The calculation isn’t the final amount of money you will have to pay, nor the amount of aid you may receive. The EFC gives the college an idea of the amount and types of federal aid available to you to cover as much of the total cost of attendance as possible. You must have an official EFC before we can proceed with processing your offer letter.
You may be selected for verification to confirm the information you provided on the FAFSA.
Verification selection can be random or because your FAFSA data was incomplete, estimated or inconsistent. The U.S. Department of Education selects students for the verification process. We will select others if we find conflicting information.
If selected, we are required to ask you to provide documentation to confirm the information on your FAFSA. This may include verification worksheets as well as your tax return transcript from two years prior. If you are a dependent student, we may also request a copy of your parent's tax return transcript. If you, or your parents, are not required to file taxes, you may be required to submit an IRS Verification Letter of Nonfiling.
Students have until the end of September of the current award year or 120 days after the last day of their enrollment, whichever is earlier, to complete verification. ICC may receive a valid ISIR after the Pell Grant deadline, but before the verification deadline published in the federal regulations for each award year. If ICC does not receive verification documents or does not receive a valid ISIR before the deadline, students will not be awarded for the current award year.
You may request a Professional Judgement if your financial situation has changed significantly due to job loss, divorce, separation, loss of untaxed income, etc. The Professional Judgement form is located on our forms page.
A student can request to have their dependency status reviewed under extreme cases of physical or emotional situations regarding parental support. The Dependency Override form is located on our forms page.
Financial Aid
Student Center
financialaid@isothermal.edu
Office: 828-395-4198
Fax: 828-286-8109
Department Directory
8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Subject to change depending on availability.