Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Who needs to submit the FAFSA?

All U.S. citizens and eligible non-U.S. citizens are required to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in order to apply for financial aid at HLS, regardless of whether you intend to apply for consideration for HLS need-based grant assistance or for Federal Stafford loans only.

International students are not eligible for federal aid and, therefore, cannot complete the FAFSA.

FAFSA: Harvard Law School's FAFSA code is E00471.

• Students can submit the FAFSA anytime after January 1, 2009 for the 2009-2010 application year. Your submission is processed by FAFSA and generally made available electronically to the HLS Student Financial Services Office in 48 hours. So, please allow 2-3 days for the FAFSA to be changed to "received" on your "Your Documents" tab of "My HLS Financial Aid."
• Be sure to list "Harvard Law School" rather than "Harvard University" as the data recipient on your application. This is a common mistake made by many students and it often causes significant delays in the processing of aid. Our school code is E00471.
• There is no cost to complete this form.
• The Federal government considers all graduate students to be independent for the purposes of determining eligibility for federal loans. Therefore, you only need to complete the student (and spouse, if applicable) sections of this form. Parent information is not required on the FAFSA for graduate students.
• For information on how to complete the FAFSA, you may reference the Department of Education's Completing the 2009-2010 FAFSA.

Special Note for Prospective students

You don't need to submit the FAFSA before being admitted to HLS. If you do submit it prior to being admitted, as long as you indicated our school code (E00471) on the FAFSA, we will be able to post your data and mark the document as "received" within approximately 2 business days after we receive your information from the admissions office.