The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is required every year to remain eligible for most types of aid, including grants, loans, Federal Work-Study, the HOPE/Lottery Scholarship, and more.
What do I need to fill out the FAFSA
To fill out the FAFSA you need:
Your FSA ID. It is the same as it was last year, if you filed a FAFSA. You can select forgot my username/password if you don’t remember it. If you have never signed a FAFSA, apply for your FSA ID at least 3 days prior to using it. You will not be able to complete the FAFSA the same day as applying for your FSA ID.
Social Security Number
A-Number (if you’re not a U.S. citizen)
2025 Federal Tax Return
2025 W2 Form(s)
Bank statements and records of investment (if applicable)
Records of net worth of investments, businesses, and farms
Records of untaxed income (if applicable)
UT Martin’s school code: 003531 – if UT Martin is your first choice, be sure to list it first on the FAFSA.
NOTE: All Contributors must supply their financial information. If you’re a dependent student, then your parent(s) will be considered contributors and will also need most of the above information.
If you’re a married student who did not file a joint tax return with your spouse, then your spouse will be a contributor and will need most of the above information, also.
Pro Tips
- Read all questions and instructions carefully.
- Meet FAFSA deadlines. Tennessee’s priority deadline is April 1
- Check your email (including spam) regularly for any messages from the U.S. Department of Education or UT Martin
Getting help
- In the online FAFSA form, select the question mark icon next to a FAFSA question to view a “tool tip” that provides information about how to answer that question.
- Visit the “FAFSA®Help” to find answers to common questions.
- In the online form, chat with Aidan®, a virtual assistant.
- Chat with, email, or find a phone number for the Federal Student Aid Information Center.
- Contact UT Martin’s One Stop at 731-881-4677 or email financialaid@utm.edu
- Click here for FAFSA Form Frequently Asked Questions.
I’ve filed my FAFSA. Now what?
Check the status of your FAFSA
You can check the status of your FAFSA by logging in and finding your application status in the Status Center under “My Activity,” which displays after you log in, if you have already started or completed a FAFSA form.
The status of your FAFSA form will be one of the following:
- Draft: Your section of the FAFSA form is incomplete.
- In Progress: You provided your consent, approval, and signature to your section of the FAFSA form, but the FAFSA form has not been submitted yet.
- In Review: Your FAFSA form was submitted but hasn’t been processed yet.
- Action Required: You are missing your consent and approval or signature or the FAFSA form was processed, but a correction is required.
- Processed: Your application was processed successfully. No further action is needed.
- Closed: Your FAFSA form was never submitted and can no longer be submitted because the federal FAFSA deadline passed.
- Note: If you submitted a paper FAFSA form, you can check the status of your form once it’s processed (paper FAFSAs take longer to process).
UT Martin will download your FAFSA. If all requirements are met, we will award your financial aid. We will then send you an Estimated Financial Aid Notification and tell you how to view and accept it in Banner Self-Service. Typically, FAFSA downloads begin a few weeks after the FAFSA opens. For 2025-26, we will begin awarding first time students in March or April, 2025. Returning students are awarded their financial aid after grades post after the spring semester ends.
Review Your FAFSA Submission Summary
You will get a Summary of the information you provided on the FAFSA after your FAFSA form is processed. Look over your FAFSA Submission Summary carefully, make sure you didn’t make a mistake on your FAFSA form, and make corrections to your FAFSA data if necessary. Reach out to us if you have questions about making corrections.
What Not to Expect From the FAFSA Submission Summary
The FAFSA Submission Summary will not tell you how much financial aid you’ll get. Also, if you provided consent and approval to obtain your federal tax information from the IRS, the FAFSA Submission Summary won’t show the details of your (or parent) income and tax information.
Provide Required Verification
You might see a note on your FAFSA Submission Summary saying you’ve been selected for verification. Verification is the process your school uses to confirm that the data reported on your FAFSA form is accurate. If you’re selected for verification, your school will request additional documentation that supports the information you reported.
Don’t assume you’re being accused of doing anything wrong. Some people are selected for verification at random. All you need to do is provide the documentation we ask for. In most cases, you won’t have to verify income and tax information. However, if you are selected for verification, we may ask you to submit a tax transcript or other documentation to confirm the information you reported.
Terminology Introduced with FAFSA Simplification
Contributors
A contributor—a new term introduced on the 2024-25 FAFSA—refers to anyone who is required to provide information on a student’s form (such as a parent/stepparent or spouse). A student’s or parent’s answers on the FAFSA will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information.
Contributors will receive an email informing them that they’ve been identified as such and will need to log in using their own FSA ID (if they don’t already have one) to provide the required information on the student’s FAFSA.
Being a contributor does not mean they are financially responsible for the student’s education costs, but it does mean the contributor must provide information on the FAFSA or the application will be incomplete, and the student will not be eligible for federal student aid.
Who are considered “Contributors?”
If your parents are divorced or separated, the contributing parent(s) is the parent (and their spouse, if remarried) who provided the greater portion of your financial support during the 12 months immediately prior to filing the FAFSA. It is not automatically the parent you primarily lived with during the past 12 months.
All Contributors–student, student’s spouse (if married), and student’s parents(s) (if a dependent student)–must provide consent to have tax data transferred directly from the IRS to the FAFSA. If consent is not provided by all parties, the student will not be eligible for federal financial aid. In previous years, transferring IRS data was optional. It is now required.
The Student Aid Index
Student Aid Index (SAI) is replacing Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
The need analysis formula to determine financial aid, formerly known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), will now be referred to as the Student Aid Index (SAI). Unlike the EFC, the SAI may be a negative number.
Assets
Assets now include small businesses and family farms.
When required, families must now report the value of their small business or family farm. If the family farm includes the principal place of residence, applicants should determine the total net value of all farm assets and subtract the net value of their principal residence to determine the final value of their farm assets.