Apply for Financial Aid

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To determine your eligibility for financial aid, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This is the only application used for financial aid at Westfield State University. All students must complete the FAFSA every year prior to February 15 in order to ensure that it reaches us by March 1st for priority consideration.

Below are the instructions on completing the FAFSA:

• Go to www.pin.ed.gov and apply for a FAFSA Personal Identification Number (PIN) for yourself and your parent(s) or spouse, if applicable.  A dependent student must have one PIN for himself/herself and a separate PIN for a least one of his/her parent(s).  An independent student must have one PIN for himself/herself. The PIN is your electronic signature.
• Once you have your PIN(s), go to www.fafsa.gov and complete the FAFSA.  The FAFSA is available each year beginning January 1 for the following academic year.  To complete the FAFSA, all students should be ready to provide income and asset information.
  • The FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval Tool will allow you to import your tax data from the IRS by simply clicking a button. We recommend that you use this method. If you have not completed the prior year tax return, you should go back and update the FAFSA with the IRS Data Retrieval Tool after your taxes are submitted.
  • Beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year, if a FAFSA is selected for verification, and the family did not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to provide income data, a tax transcript from the IRS will be required.
  • Tax transcripts can be obtained by electronic or paper request. For information on how to request an IRS tax transcript, go to Requesting a Tax Transcript.
  • If you choose not to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for reporting income information, this data can be found on your federal taxes. If your taxes are not yet prepared, you may estimate your data using the prior year's tax return. You should then log back in to the FAFSA and update when your taxes are completed. Remember that if you manually enter your tax data and are selected for verification, you will be required to submit an official IRS tax transcript.
  • Certain filers will not be able to utilize the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. These filers should manually enter their tax information. You will be unable to use the Data Retrieval Tool if:
    • Your marital status changed after December 31, 2012
    • Your tax filing status is 'Married, Filing Separately.'
    • You filed an Ammended Tax Return
    • You filed a Foreign Tax Return
    • You filed a tax return using a Tax ID Number (TIN) as opposed to a Social Security Number.
    • The home address on the FAFSA does not match the address on the tax return.
• Students and Parents then sign electronically using their PINs and submit.
• Be sure to include the Westfield State University Title IV Financial Aid Code of 002189.
• Students will receive an email from the Department of Education confirming their submission and a second email with their Student Aid Report (SAR).  Students should review the SAR for any information or requests made by the Department of Education.
• Return to www.fafsa.gov only to make any necessary corrections to your FAFSA information.  Any time a change is made to the FAFSA information, the student will receive a new SAR.  Review the new SAR, for any information discrepancies or requests made of you by the Department of Education.
• Your FAFSA information will be sent to Westfield State University.  The college will contact you with any requests for information.  If you are chosen by the Department of Education or by Westfield State for a process called verification, the Financial Aid Office will contact you and ask that additional information be forwarded directly to the school.  You are not required to submit any verification documentation to Westfield State University unless requested to do so.  If information is requested, please provide it as soon as possible.  If the necessary documents for the verification process are not submitted, you will be ineligible to receive any Federal funding, including Federal student loans.
• A new student whose FAFSA was submitted on time and is selected for verification will receive an estimated award letter with a request to submit the verification documents. If your financial aid eligibility changes due to verification, a revised award letter will be mailed to you. Returning students, or students who miss the March 1 deadline, will not be awarded until after verification is completed.