Each one is a starting point, not a substitute for the official page or for your school's financial aid office. Both of those outrank anything written here.
What to gather before the form opens — identity documents, prior-year tax information for whoever the form asks about, records of untaxed income, and the list of schools to send it to. Why accuracy beats speed, and what the corrections process is for.
Which categories are repaid and which are not, what subsidised and unsubsidised actually change, and why two offers of the same headline size can be worth very different amounts once you read what each is made of.
The figure aid is calculated against: tuition and fees, but also books, equipment, housing, food, transport and personal costs. How to find a school's published figure and why two schools can differ more in what they include than in what they charge.
What to ask before enrolling or relying on an estimate: renewal rules, enrolment-status conditions, what happens if circumstances change, and which answers are worth having in writing.
State programmes and individual schools set their own dates, often months before the federal deadline and sometimes on a first-come basis. The earliest deadline that applies to you is the only one worth planning around.
The patterns worth knowing: a fee to file a free form, a guaranteed award, pressure to decide today, a request for your federal aid account credentials, or an official-sounding name that is not the agency it resembles.
Describe what you are trying to work out and a person will point you at the right guide, or at the office that actually owns the answer.