If you are applying to attend college next fall, and have not yet submitted the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), it's time to get it done. Most colleges require the FAFSA as part of their financial aid application, and most colleges also have a priority deadline for applying for financial aid. Apply after hat deadline, and you may receive a much less generous offer.  Even without the deadline, it is in your interest to apply as early as possible, so that you will receive your aid offer around the same time you receive an offer of admission. Without the aid offer, you won't know how much any given college is expecting you to pay to attend, making it hard to decide between competing offers.

Given all you have to gain, what would stop you from getting online and completing this application immediately?  According to a recent article in the New York Times, many families find the form complicated, and a few find it so confusing that they simply give up (and may give up on paying for college as a result).  You don't have to join the ranks of the FAFSA defeated, however.  There is considerable help available to figure this out and get it done. Your high school or school district may sponsor workshops on applying for financial aid. The organization College Goal Sunday sponsors workshops around the country which walk students and their parents through the process of completing the FAFSA as well as explaining the types of financial aid available to help student pay for college. If none of that works, you can even pay $80-$100 to have http://www.fafsa.com/ help you complete the FAFSA (you don't need their help, but it would be better to pay for help if the alternative is not applying for financial aid at all).

If you are planing to attend college, and don't have $100,000-$200,000 laying around in an account waiting for you to send it to the college of your choice, you need to get through the process of applying for aid. Even if you have the cash, it is probably still in your interest to submit the application if only to signal to the colleges where you attend that you are concerned about cost and would be open to aid offers. If you are finding the process confusing, please seek out the help you need and get this done. It could be the most profitable few hours of effort you'll ever make.