Copied and pasted from another discussion:
Thought I would throw in on the education financing piece first. Disclaimer: while I am a financial counselor (when it's not tax season) I am more familiar with other personal finance issues than I am with higher ed. But here's what I know.
1. Fill out your FAFSA asap. You need to get that in - even if you don't know which school you're going to go to (or even that will accept you), you can fill it out. In other words, this ain't the year to procrastinate on filing your taxes. Go here for more:
https://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.
2. Once you've submitted your FAFSA, you will receive your Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR outlines basically what you have to contribute. Schools look at this to determine if you qualify for merit-based aid and also to know what kind of assets you have.
3. Using the SAR, the school will put together a financial aid letter for you. It will show the cost of tuition, other fees, and a cost-of-living budget. They'll subtract any scholarships, fellowships, or grants (grants being pretty darn unlikely for us!), and also include whatever federal loans you qualify for. Whatever's left is called the EFC, or Expected Family Contribution. Unless your parents are still funding your life, that's your part.
You want to do this soon because some pots of money can get distributed before you start to be considered. My guess is that this is less likely at b-school than in undergrad, but why not be the early worm? The FAFSA really isn't hard to do; you might as well get it done.
There shouldn't be any reason to update the FAFSA, assuming nothing changes in your tax situation. Think of the FAFSA like the GMAT - I bet most of you sent your GMAT scores when you took the test, long before you applied, and even longer before you got accepted. Heck, several schools have my GMAT and they won't ever see an app from me.