Although rising high school seniors shouldn’t complete the FAFSA until next fall, there’s still plenty of things they can be doing right now to prepare for education after high school.
Completing the 2026-27 FAFSA when it is available next October, will be important for high school seniors who want to seek financial aid to help pay for their college education.
In the meantime, if you are a student who will be a senior this fall, there’s a lot of college planning you can do right now. Planning your future now will make you all the more ready for the FAFSA and other college planning activities that occur in your senior year.
Here are four things rising seniors can be doing right now:
- Explore careers. Use Mapping Your Future’s career tool to explore different career paths and learn about job opportunities in those career paths. Knowing what careers are of interest to you will help you select a college that offers a program of study that aligns with your career goals.
- Research colleges. Use the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard to learn about colleges you may want to attend. The scorecard provides information that will help a student determine if a college is a good fit – such as the cost of attendance, the admissions rate, the location, and programs of study – to mention just some of the data shared on the scorecard. By doing this research now, you’ll be ready to list the colleges you would like to attend on the 2026-27 FAFSA.
- Estimate financial aid. Use the U.S. Department of Education’s Financial Aid Estimator to receive an estimate on the amount and type of financial aid you could receive. This tool only estimates federal financial aid (It doesn’t include any state, institutional or private financial aid) but this information will help students choose a college that is a good fit financially.
- Apply for scholarships. You don’t have to wait until classes start to apply for scholarships. In fact, by doing research on scholarship opportunities and applying for as many as you can during the summer, you will free up some time during your busy senior year. The more scholarships you seek the better chance you have of receiving valuable scholarships to pay for your education.
Although rising seniors should wait to complete the FAFSA, that doesn’t mean you should wait to do any college planning until you start your senior year. Taking these actions now will help you be on track to planning a successful future.
