
FAFSA Checklist and FAQs
- Please use your first-choice campus Federal Title IV Code on the FAFSA:
Commonwealth University - Bloomsburg: 003315
Commonwealth University - Lock Haven: 003323
Commonwealth University - Mansfield: 003324 - Student and parent FSA IDs
- Student and parent Social Security numbers
- Student and parent prior, prior year federal income tax returns (include Schedule 1, 2 & 3 if applicable) Note: The IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) is an option within the FAFSA to automatically retrieve and transfer income and tax data from the IRS into the FAFSA. This is the preferred method, if possible.
- Student and parent prior, prior year W-2 forms and other records of money earned
- Student and parent prior, prior year untaxed income received including: workers’ compensation, child support, payments to tax deferred pension, savings plans, etc.
- Current bank statements & records of stocks, bonds, 529 plans and other investments
- Cash, checking & savings accounts
- Real estate (other than home you live in)
- Financial assets, such as: stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, mutual funds & money market accounts
- UGMA/UTMA custodial accounts
- College Savings plans, including: 529 plans and Coverdell accounts (list as a parent asset)
- Your primary residence (the home you live in)
- Retirement plans
- Business that employs less than 100 full time employees
- Family farm if family’s principal residence & parents participate in farming operations
- Qualified life insurance policies
- Personal possessions
- Initial Application - 30 min
- Renewal Application - 15 min or less
- FAFSA Correction - 10 min or less
You're considered a dependent for the 2023-2024 academic year and required to provide parent information unless you can answer YES to one of the following questions:
- Were you born before January 1, 2000?
- As of today, are you married?
- At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, will you be working on a graduate program?
- Are you currently serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces for purposes other than training, or are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces?
- Do you have children or dependents who will receive more than half of their support from you between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024?
- At any time since you turned 13, were both your parents deceased, were you in foster care or were you a dependent ward of the court?
- As determined by a court in your state of legal residence, are you or were you an emancipated minor?
Dependent students are required to report parent information on the FAFSA. For reporting purposes, parent means your legal biological or adoptive parent or stepparent, or a person that the state has determined to be your legal parent.

The following people are not your parents unless they have legally adopted you:
- Widowed Stepparent
- Grandparents
- Foster Parents
- Legal Guardians
- Older Siblings
- Aunts or Uncles