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Families can start applying for free college funding – and now is the time to do it

ATLANTA — Families can apply for important funding to pay for college. It’s even more important this year because many families are feeling the financial crunch from the pandemic.

The free money will have huge impact on students and their families. Oct. 1 was the first day to apply for grants through FAFSA.

Nikki Jones is a fourth-year medical student at Morehouse School of Medicine. She plans to become a pediatrician and says the money will be a big help.

“And it’s not just the cost of tuition and the fees and just living while you’re in medical school, but it’s also the cost to get into medical school, paying for applications flights to interviews,” Jones told Channel 2 Action News.

We also spoke with a financial aid expert Casey Near. She says starting college students and their families should fill out their FAFSA application.

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“Free money, it’s grant money and grant money is not something that you have to get paid back. And I think the biggest rate that we always look at with the amount of students who are applying to college as the percentage of completion of the FAFSA, we do not want that to go down this year students should have access to this free money,” Near said.

If students or parents have questions about the application, there are a lot of great resources on college websites and most public universities have guides for filling out financial aid.

Experts say the sooner students turn in their FAFSA application, the better because funds are given out as applications are processed so there will be less money available for students who wait.

YOU CAN APPLY HERE.