ALBANY, N.Y. —The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), the State agency that helps people pay for college, reminds all college students, including those just entering college in the fall of 2013, to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and New York’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) application to ensure they receive all of the student financial aid for which they qualify in the 2013-14 school year. Assistance for all of these students and their families is found at HESC’s comprehensive student financial aid website, HESC.ny.gov.

“Last year alone, New York awarded $920 million in TAP grants to 384,000 students attending the fine colleges we are fortunate to have in the State,” said Elsa Magee, Acting President of HESC. “Although the FAFSA and TAP applications have been available since January, many students and families may not have completed them and are in danger of not receiving the aid they should for next year. Every year, students throughout the state who most need financial aid don’t get it simply because they don’t apply.”

Students should complete the FAFSA as early as possible to have the best chance of receiving all the financial aid for which they are qualified. Ideally, the FAFSA should be completed before mid-April, depending on each college’s own deadline. Both the FAFSA and TAP applications must be completed each year the student attends college.

Earlier this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a student financial aid awareness proclamation to kick off HESC’s student financial aid awareness effort, “Start Here, Get There.” StartHereGetThere.org provides a step-by-step tutorial for completing the FAFSA, college and financial aid planning information, informative videos, helpful tips and tools, as well as information about federal, state and college-sponsored aid, including scholarship search tools.

The FAFSA is found at FAFSA.ed.gov, and filing assistance can be found at HESC’s HESC.ny.gov. Completion of the FAFSA enables students to be considered for eligibility for various types of federal aid, including the Pell Grant, Federal Work Study and Federal Direct Student Loans. The U.S. Department of Education awards about $150 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to more than 14 million students nationwide. 

New York’s TAP continues to be one of the nation’s largest state-sponsored entitlement need-based grant programs for student aid. Since its inception, TAP has awarded over $20 billion to 5 million students. The TAP application is available as a direct link from the FAFSA. If eligible for TAP, awards can be up to $5,000. Visit HESC.ny.gov to estimate TAP awards and learn about other New York State scholarships and awards.

FAFSA questions can be answered through online chat weekdays on StartHereGetThere.org, email at FAFSAhelp.HESC.ny.gov, or by calling HESC’s toll-free hotline, 1-888-697-4372.

About HESC: HESC is New York State’s student financial aid agency that helps people pay for college and a national leader in providing need-based grant and scholarship award money to college-going students. At HESC’s core are programs like the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), numerous state scholarships, federal college access grants and a highly successful College Savings program. HESC puts college within the reach of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year through programs like these and through the guidance it provides to students, families and counselors. In 2011-12, HESC helped nearly 424,000 students achieve their college dreams by providing more than $971 million in grants, scholarships and student loan forgiveness programs, including $920.1 million awarded through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).

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