To send your FAFSA to a school, enter that school’s six-character Federal School Code in the schools section of the form. You can list up to 20 schools when you file online, or 10 if you use the paper PDF.1Federal Student Aid. Filling Out the FAFSA Form After the form processes, each listed school typically gains access to your data within a day.2Federal Student Aid. Learn About the FAFSA Submission Summary If you need to add a school later, you don’t refile — you make a correction on StudentAid.gov.
Find the Right Federal School Code
Every college, university, and career school that participates in federal financial aid has a unique six-character Federal School Code assigned by the Department of Education.3Knowledge Center. Federal School Code Lists The fastest way to find one is the Federal School Code Search tool on StudentAid.gov, which lets you look up any school by name, city, or state.
Watch the campus. University systems with multiple locations usually assign a separate code to each campus. Enter the code for the specific campus where you plan to enroll, not the flagship or the system’s main address, or the aid office you actually need may never see your file.
Enter Schools on Your Initial FAFSA
Have your codes ready before you start so you don’t have to break off mid-application to hunt for them. In the schools section, type the six-character code into the designated field. The system displays the school’s name and address so you can confirm the match. If you don’t have a code in hand, the built-in search tool works from inside the form.
Housing Plan
For each school, the FAFSA asks whether you’ll live on campus, off campus, or with a parent.4Federal Student Aid. Housing Plans This choice feeds into how the school calculates your cost of attendance. Living with a parent generally produces a lower cost-of-attendance figure, which can reduce the total aid a school offers. On-campus and off-campus selections build in higher estimated living costs and may increase eligibility.
Does the Order Matter
For federal aid — Pell Grants, federal loans, and work-study — the order of the schools on your list has no effect on eligibility. Some states, though, use the order of in-state schools to determine priority for state grants. If you’re applying for state aid, check your state’s rule before submitting. When you’re unsure, list the in-state school you’re most likely to attend first.
Schools cannot see which other institutions you listed. Each one only receives its own record.
Add or Swap Schools After You Submit
You don’t file a new FAFSA to reach more schools. Once your original submission has processed, log in to StudentAid.gov, open your processed FAFSA from the “My Activity” section on your dashboard, and choose “Make a Correction” from the “Actions” menu.5Federal Student Aid. How Do I Correct My FAFSA Form Add the new school code and resubmit.
Already at 20 schools? You’ll have to drop one to add another. Removing a school does not erase what that school already received; it keeps everything you submitted while it was on your list. But the removed school will not receive any later updates or corrections you make.6Federal Student Aid. How To Review and Correct Your FAFSA Form You can repeat this swap as many times as you need to cover every school on your list.
The Data Release Number Shortcut
When your FAFSA is processed, you receive a four-digit Data Release Number (DRN) at the top of your FAFSA Submission Summary.2Federal Student Aid. Learn About the FAFSA Submission Summary Give that number to a school’s financial aid office and they can add their code to your record for you.7Federal Student Aid. 2025-26 FAFSA Form It’s a useful shortcut if you’re already working with the aid office or if the online correction is giving you trouble.
Confirm Each School Received It
Your FAFSA Submission Summary becomes available on StudentAid.gov after your form is processed. It lists every school you selected and your Student Aid Index.8Federal Student Aid. FAFSA Submission Summary – What You Need To Know Open the “School Information” tab and check that everyone you meant to include is there.
Schools generally have your data within a day of processing. Online submissions process in a few days; paper submissions can take a week or longer. Even so, don’t stop at the federal confirmation. Log in to each school’s own financial aid portal to verify your FAFSA data landed and to see whether that school is asking for anything else, such as tax transcripts or identity verification.
Watch the Deadlines
The 2026–27 FAFSA opened on September 24, 2025. The federal submission deadline is June 30, 2027, and corrections must be in by September 12, 2027.9Federal Student Aid. FAFSA Application Deadlines Miss the federal deadline and you can’t file that year’s FAFSA at all.
State and school deadlines are almost always earlier, and missing them can shrink your aid. Many state grant programs pay out first-come, first-served, so filing early protects the full amount available to you. State priority deadlines for 2026–27 range from as early as January 2026 to mid-2027.9Federal Student Aid. FAFSA Application Deadlines
Individual colleges set their own aid deadlines too, and those can be earlier than either the state or federal cutoff. A college’s deadline might mean the date you submit, the date processing finishes, or the date the school receives your processed data, so ask each aid office which one applies.10Federal Student Aid. 3 FAFSA Deadlines You Need To Know Now File early, list every school you’re seriously considering from the start, and use corrections to add anyone you decide on later.