Families of high school seniors can get help Thursday in filling out federal college student aid form

MASON CITY — Mason City High School is hosting an event for families of all area high school seniors to help with the application process for college student aid.

Counselor Karla Wymore says students who want help will need to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.  “This is the first step on finding out what type of financial aid they are eligible for, whether it’s grants, loans, or work study, so it’s really important no matter where they want to go to college to do this one application.”

Wymore says while it’s a simple process, they want to offer assistance in filling out the forms so students can get the maximum benefits possible.  “The form itself isn’t hard, but it’s stressful because there’s just a lot of weight on it to do it correctly, because you want to make sure you’re getting the most aid that you are eligible for. We have some volunteers that come in and help assist families, volunteers that do the FAFSA more often than most folks, and so they can help answer any of those questions or snags that they might have.”

Wymore says they encourage families of all income levels to fill out the FAFSA form.   “Right now there are a lot of programs available that in Iowa, for sure with our community colleges and Future Ready Iowa programs, that are high need for our state of Iowa shortage areas. So if students are going into one of those programs, it doesn’t matter how much their income is, they just have to fill out the FAFSA, and if they get into that program, then the state will cover the tuition because they are in such high demand in the field.”

The FAFSA event will take place at Mason City High School for all area student families from 4:00 to 7:00 Thursday evening. Families of Mason City High School students may come earlier in the day from 12:00 noon to 4:00.

For more about the FAFSA application process, you can head to www.fafsa.ed.gov