You send your FAFSA to a school by adding that school’s Federal School Code to your application on StudentAid.gov, then submitting (or resubmitting) the form. The system delivers your financial aid data electronically to every school on your list. You can include up to 20 schools at a time, and you can log back in to add or swap schools as often as you need.
Adding Schools During Your First FAFSA
When you fill out the FAFSA for the first time, there’s a section that asks you to list the colleges you want to receive your information. For each school, you’ll either enter its six-digit Federal School Code directly or use the built-in search tool to find the school by name, city, or state. Once you’ve added every school you’re considering and submitted the form, your data is sent to all of them automatically.
If you’re not sure of a school’s code, the Federal Student Aid website has a search tool at StudentAid.gov where you can look up any school by name or location. The tool also shows useful comparison details like tuition amounts and graduation rates, which can help if you’re still narrowing your list.
Adding Schools After You’ve Already Submitted
You don’t have to list every school before your first submission. If you applied to a new college, changed your mind about a program, or simply forgot to include a school, you can go back and update your list at any time. Log in to your FAFSA account on StudentAid.gov, navigate to the section where your colleges are listed, add the new school by code or search, and submit the form again. The newly added school will then receive your data.
One timing note: if you just submitted your FAFSA for the first time, wait a couple of days before logging back in to add more schools. This gives the system time to process your initial submission and deliver your data to the schools you already listed.
The 20-School Limit and How to Work Around It
The online FAFSA lets you list up to 20 schools at once. Most students won’t hit that cap, but if you’re casting a wide net and applying to more than 20 colleges, there’s a simple workaround. After your FAFSA has been processed and the schools on your current list have received your data, log back in and delete some of the schools that have already gotten your information. Then add new schools in those open slots and resubmit. Removing a school from your list does not take away the data that school already received.
You can repeat this process as many times as you need. There’s no limit on how often you log in and update your school list.
Checking That a School Received Your FAFSA
After you submit, it typically takes a few days for schools to receive and process your information. You can confirm delivery in two ways. First, check your FAFSA Submission Summary (formerly called the Student Aid Report), which lists the schools your data was sent to. Second, contact the financial aid office at each school directly. They can tell you whether they’ve received your FAFSA and whether they need any additional documents from you to build your aid package.
Many colleges require supplemental forms beyond the FAFSA, such as their own institutional aid applications or tax verification documents. Getting your FAFSA to a school is the first step, but checking in with each school’s financial aid office ensures nothing else is holding up your aid.
Order of Schools Does Not Affect Your Aid
Every school on your FAFSA list receives the same financial information. The order you list them in has no effect on how much aid you’re offered, and schools cannot see which other colleges are on your list. You won’t be penalized for listing many schools or for adding a school later in the process. Each college’s financial aid office uses your FAFSA data independently to calculate your aid eligibility based on their own policies and available funding.