Hopefully for seniors, they've already attended a couple of financial aid nights to kind of get ready for the process. The first thing they should have done already is applied for admission because that takes longer.

There are two versions, paper and electronic. Both are processed the same way by the federal government. With the paper application, it takes just a little longer because of the mailing time. So I recommend that the families use the form of the FAFSA they are most comfortable with.