Kaskaskia College Helps Local Community Complete FAFSA Forms

With the new and improved FAFSA form ready for high school and college students to fill out, Kaskaskia College Director of Financial Aid Sarah Ratermann advises families to start the process early. Hiccups can happen along the way, and in the state of Illinois, priority for the MAP Grant goes to those who submit their forms before April 1. Above all, no matter a student's financial background, Ratermann encourages all students to fill out a FAFSA for the 2025-26 school year, and they might be pleasantly surprised.

Scholarships at different institutions can require a FAFSA on file, no matter if you got any money from the government or not, Ratermann said. Some colleges will see you didnt get any money after filling it out and then award you a scholarship based on that. Also, different institutions prepare your financial package after looking at the information on the form. The FAFSA also determines whether you get a Pell Grant, and Pell money can be used for all sorts of different expenses in college. Although some get stressed out at the idea of filling out the form, we try to help families and students alleviate stress and show them it's worth it.

Many people experienced problems with a rough FAFSA rollout before the 2024-25 school year, but Ratermann said most of the malfunctions and glitches with the form have been solved in this year's version. Ratermann added that her biggest tip for completing the FAFSA is to create an ID with a username and password within the portal at least three days before the student wants to complete the form. Not only does the student need to create an ID, but so do the parents, who also fill out a portion of the form.

In the past, the FAFSA process has taken at least an hour, if not more time, Ratermann said. This year, we've seen the form take about 30 to 45 minutes tops to complete. It's a much simpler process now. They added things like a progress bar and parent wizard tool to help make it easier. Also, in the past, parents were worried about their kids seeing their financial information on their taxes. However, now it's a two-step form where the child fills out their section and logs out before the parents log in and complete the rest on their own.

Ratermann and other Kaskaskia College staff in the Financial Aid department have been visiting the 17 high schools within the KC district to teach students about the FAFSA and answer any questions. Ratermann said KC aims to go to each high school at least twice during the school year to help with the form, and they are always available to go back if needed.

We know not every student we help with the FAFSA is going to go to KC, but as a community college, this is a service we want to provide to our district no matter what institution a student is attending, Ratermann said. Sometimes, a student will let us know they don't plan on going to Kaskaskia College when we help them fill out the form, but we assure them that's OK. We want to make sure everyone in our community has the chance to get financial aid so they can continue their education.