The best steps you can do to make your path to college financial aid is to (and one of your parents) to request a PIN. A PIN, or Personal Identification Number, is assigned by the U.S. Department of Education and is available free of charge at www.pin.ed.gov.
The PIN is a great tool for students as they apply for financial aid and beyond. The PIN can be used to:
What you need before applying
The student and the parent need to apply separately.
Have the date of birth, social security number and middle initial on hand and you are ready to get online and apply.
Save your pin, you can use the same number year after year.
The U.S. Department of Education recently implemented a change to its Personal Identification Number (PIN) procedures to provide the highest level of security to PIN users. Users now must register a Challenge Question and Answer. Users select from a list of questions (such as "What is your mother's maiden name?") and provide the answer. The Challenge Question and Answer need only be registered once.
The Challenge Question and Answer information is gathered upon PIN registration. However, those who obtained a PIN prior to December 27, 2004 will be required to register their Challenge Question and Answer prior to using their PIN. To do this, users should visit the PIN web site at www.pin.ed.gov and select "Activate My PIN."