Latino Life: What you should know about applying for college financial aid

Finding cash for college may seem daunting but millions of Americans are receiving help to fund their college education.

The office of Federal Student Aid offers $120 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds each year. Students are encouraged to fill out the Federal Application for Student Aid by March 2nd to take advantage of the most financial aid possible.

Jeanette Quiroz is a financial aid assistant at Fresno City College. She sat down with Latino Life host Graciela Moreno to discuss student options.

Graciela: "There are a lot of different ways that students can get help in paying for their college education, right? Let's talk FAFSA. What is it?"

Jeanette: "FAFSA is an application that students use to apply to receive federal student aid. So we use the FAFSA application as a tool to see how much financial aid a student can receive."

Graciela: "So with this one application, they can get money from more than one source?"

Jeanette:"We use the FAFSA to see if you're eligible for state financial aid and federal student aid. So the federal student aid is where you see your Pell Grants and your work-study. And the state aid is where you see your Cal Grants and your college-based aid, like the Board of Governors Fee Waiver, just to name a few different grants."

Graciela:"Tell us about that deadline."

Jeanette: "So we like to tell students that there is an important deadline called the March 2nd deadline, so you want to fill out your FAFSA before then, but that's just to make sure that you qualify for all the types of financial aid that you might be eligible for.

"You can still apply after. So it's important to know that, if the March 2nd deadline passes and you haven't done your FAFSA application, rest assured you can still submit one."

Watch the rest of the interview for further details on financial aid opportunities.

Check out these resources about financial aid.

Federal Application For Student Aid

Fresno City College Financial Aid (559) 442-8245

California Dream Act Application