What does priority deadline for fafsa mean

If you're accepted, you have until the regular decision date May 1 to decide if you want to attend the school or not. From the definitions, you might notice that priority deadlines are most similar to early action deadlines.

For both, you don't need to do anything more than apply by the deadline. Then, if you're accepted, you can decide whether or not you want to attend the school. By applying by the deadline, you'll get an earlier decision as well. In general, schools with rolling admissions are more likely to use the term "priority deadline" while other schools use "early action.

And what about early decision? Both priority deadlines and early decision require you to apply by an earlier date, and both can increase your chance of being accepted by the school. However, the key difference is that early decision is binding. If you apply early decision to a school and they accept you, you must attend.

This is not true for priority deadlines; you can still attend any school you want if you're accepted. While you can apply after a priority deadline and still have a chance of getting into a school , if you apply after the regular deadline your application won't be looked at.

The only exception is if you have significant extenuating circumstances, and even then it's not guaranteed. To give you a sense of when priority deadlines are and how they compare to regular application deadlines, here's a sample of schools with priority deadlines.

Most schools with priority deadlines tend to be larger public schools, although this certainly isn't always the case.

If a school has a "rolling" regular deadline, that means it will continue to accept applications until it fills all the spots for the incoming freshman class. If you are at all able to apply by a school's priority deadline, we highly recommend it. If you apply by the priority deadline, you're guaranteeing your application will be reviewed, and you're giving yourself the best shot at both getting into the school and getting financial aid.

There's really no downside to applying by a priority deadline, unless it causes you to neglect other college deadlines, schoolwork, etc. If you apply after the priority deadline, you can still be accepted, but you run the risk of the school already having filled its slots for the next school year. When this happens, your application won't be reviewed at all, even if it's very strong.

So you may still get accepted into the school, but you may not get as much financial aid, be able to live on campus, or be admitted into special programs the school has.

So really try to make priority deadlines, even if they don't seem that important. What is a priority deadline? A school's priority deadline is the deadline you must apply by in order to guarantee a chance of your application being reviewed. It can also be used to give priority to things like student housing, program spots, and financial aid.

If you apply after a priority deadline, you still have a chance of your application being reviewed, but only after all the applications of students who submitted by the deadline. Therefore, we recommend applying by priority deadlines whenever possible to maximize your chances of getting admitted and having access to resources you want from the school.

This deadline is the date returning students must file their FAFSA to receive priority consideration in the financial aid awarding process.

Students who do not meet the deadline are considered for limited forms of financial aid. Priority funding may include State and Federal grants, as well as Federal work study funds. Filing your FAFSA early does not guarantee you will receive money from programs, such as the work study program, but it does increase the chances of receiving it. Students are highly encouraged to submit their FAFSA before the priority deadline, even if they only want to receive partial aid. What they all have in common, though, is that they use the FAFSA to assess eligibility for their aid programs.

So when a college wants to get its aid squared away before the academic year starts, it needs your FAFSA to make that happen. If you want in on that college money, you need to help the college out by getting your information in by its deadline. Same goes for state aid programs. Additionally, many outside scholarship programs need to see your FAFSA before they consider your eligibility for their money. By missing deadlines, you take yourself out of the running for money you might otherwise get.

Some states and colleges continue awarding aid to FAFSA latecomers, but your chances get much slimmer, and the payout is often less if you do get aid. Did we mention not to miss the deadlines? Apply by the earliest deadline. Drew Goins is a senior journalism major at the University of North Carolina.