October has been an exciting month for Austin-area high school seniors. In addition to the football season kicking off, homecoming, and getting into the swing of a final year of high school, many students have been looking to their future and filling out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA.)

We all know the importance of completing the FAFSA early: the potential to receive more money to help pay for college both in grants and scholarships. For Class of 2016 seniors, there were 8,617 FAFSA applications filed by end of the school year yielding over $93 million in financial aid.

This year, with President Obama’s decision to move up the beginning of FAFSA filing 90 days to October 1 and allow 2015 tax information to be used, it has been a busy fall. In coordination with the Austin Chamber, school districts and local campuses have held 14 FAFSA completion events across the area with six more scheduled before year’s end. We have seen excellent participation at the events, already surpassing 1,100 families attending. So far, about 2,462 students in the Class of 2017 have submitted their FAFSA across the Austin MSA. This equates to approximately $24,397,200 of potential need - or merit - based aid for these students and their families.

None of this could be possible without the dozens of volunteers who generously donate their time to help families through this process. Our partners at Texas Guaranteed have especially been helpful. They train our volunteers from Texas State, ACC, Concordia, University of Texas, Texas A&M University, St. Edward’s University, The Higher Education Coordinating Board, Advise Texas, and College Forward . A full list of our sponsors and partners is available at www.collegeinsight.com.

We had a successful ACL giveaway contest in late September and early October. Student leaders helped sign up more than 850 students to attend the events that generated thousands of Twitter interactions to help spread the word about the importance of completing the FAFSA early. Student leaders from Bowie High School, Elgin High School, and Manor New Tech High School won their respective groups and were awarded ACL Weekend 2 passes. A special thanks to all of the campus counselors who helped organize and inspire student leaders!

If you haven’t had the chance yet to fill out the FAFSA, we have the following upcoming events:

November 2 - Austin HS

November 5 - ACC Riverside

November 10 - ACC Eastview

November 12 - Reagan HS, Eastside Memorial HS, and Lanier HS

December 10 - Travis HS

To sign up for one of these events please visit http://www.collegeinsight.com.