You can add schools to your FAFSA at any point after your form has been submitted and processed, directly through your StudentAid.gov account. The process takes just a few minutes, and you can list up to 20 schools at a time. If you need to send your information to even more schools beyond that, you can swap out schools you’ve already added.
How to Add Schools After Submitting
Your FAFSA needs to be fully processed before you can make changes, so if you just submitted, give it a few days. Once it’s processed, follow these steps:
- Log in to your account at StudentAid.gov.
- From your Dashboard, select your submitted FAFSA form under “My Activity.”
- Select “Add or Remove Schools” from the “Actions” menu.
- Complete the short FAFSA correction onboarding process.
- Select “Add or Remove Schools” again to start the correction.
- On the “Selected Colleges and Career Schools” page, select “Search and Select More Schools.”
- Search for a school by entering its state, city, name, or federal school code.
- Select the school you want, then click “Continue” to add it to your list.
That’s it. The school will then receive your FAFSA data so its financial aid office can begin building your aid package. You can repeat this process whenever you need to add more schools.
Finding a School’s Federal School Code
Every college and career school that participates in federal financial aid has a unique federal school code. You can search for it right inside the FAFSA tool when you’re adding schools, using the school’s name or location. You can also look up codes ahead of time using the school search tool on StudentAid.gov, which lets you search by name, code, or location and also shows details like tuition amounts and graduation rates.
Having the code ready speeds things up, but it’s not required. The search tool inside the FAFSA will find the school as long as you know the name and general location.
The 20-School Limit
The FAFSA allows up to 20 schools on your form at one time. If you’re applying to fewer than 20 schools, you won’t run into any issues. But if you’ve already listed 20 and want to add another, you’ll need to remove one first. The system will prompt you to choose which school to replace.
Removing a school from your list does not delete your FAFSA information from that school’s system. The school keeps whatever data you submitted while it was on your list. It simply won’t receive any new updates or corrections you make going forward. So if you’ve already been admitted somewhere and your aid package is set, removing that school to make room for a new one won’t cause problems with your existing offer.
If You’re Applying to More Than 20 Schools
Students applying to a large number of schools can work around the 20-school cap by adding and removing in batches. Add your first set of schools, wait for the form to process, then swap out schools you no longer need on the list and replace them with new ones. Each round of changes goes through the correction process described above.
There’s also a paper option. If you received a paper FAFSA Submission Summary in the mail, you can replace up to three schools on that document and mail it back using the address printed on the form. This is slower than making changes online, so most students will want to stick with the StudentAid.gov route.
When to Add Schools
You can add schools at any point during the FAFSA cycle, but earlier is better. Financial aid offices use your FAFSA data to calculate your aid package, and many schools award aid on a rolling or first-come basis. Adding a school months after your initial submission could mean missing priority deadlines that school has set for institutional aid, grants, or work-study funds.
If you’re still building your college list, it’s fine to submit the FAFSA with just a few schools and add more later. Don’t wait until your list is “final” to submit. Getting the form in early protects your access to aid at the schools you already know about, and adding schools later takes only a few minutes.
Adding Schools Before Submitting
If you haven’t submitted your FAFSA yet, adding schools is even simpler. During the application itself, you’ll reach a step where you search for and select the colleges you want to receive your information. Use the same search method (school name, location, or federal school code) to find each institution, select it, and move on. You can add up to 20 schools before hitting submit.
The order you list schools does not affect your aid eligibility. Some older advice suggested that school order mattered for state aid purposes, but the current FAFSA does not share your list order with schools or state agencies.