HARRISBURG — Filing for financial aid is one of the most important–and nerve-wracking — steps for Pennsylvania families preparing for college.

That’s where the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) comes in, with a mission to make higher education more accessible for everyone across the state.

In its latest move, PHEAA hosted a live webinar designed to guide students and parents through the process of completing the Pennsylvania State Grant Form (SGF), a crucial step in securing state-funded aid for the 2025-26 academic year.

For students and parents, the first step on the financial aid journey is the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This federal form serves as the gateway to most grants, loans, and scholarships, including Pennsylvania’s state grant.

As Nancy Harvey, one of PHEAA’s Higher Education Access Partners, explained in the session, “the first place a student needs to start is by filing the FAFSA in order to gain access to apply for the PA State Grant.”

Once the FAFSA is complete, first-time applicants must also file the SGF. Renewal students–those who have received the state grant before–may not need to refile, but some will, depending on PHEAA’s requirements for the year.

PHEAA communicates with students through the email address they provide on their FAFSA, sending a prompt to set up an account in the PHEAA system. Students should track their inbox and spam folder for a message from State Grants Special Programs. Harvey noted, “A few notes I want to call out here first is this student does not need to receive that email from [PHEAA] in order to create their account and apply for the PA State Grant.”

If the message gets lost, students can go to the PHEAA website at https://www.pheaa.org/ and set up their account without waiting.

The agency’s online system, operated through American Education Services (AES), serves as the central hub for the application process. It’s important for students, not parents or guardians, to create and manage these accounts, as the application and aid belong to the student alone.

“The student is the one to create their account. No one else should be doing it for them,” Harvey said during the webinar.

The webinar also broke down the SGF itself, which includes confirming personal details, state residency, and information about parents or guardians. The form asks whether the student or parents are Pennsylvania residents and checks for a Pennsylvania driver’s license or state-issued ID.

High school information–such as the location and date of graduation or the expected graduation date–must also be included. Accuracy matters here, especially when selecting the college the student plans to attend.

“It is important that you have the correct college listing because part of your Pennsylvania State grant is determined in part by the school that you actually attend,” said Kirk Deutsch, Harvey’s co-presenter.

PHEAA emphasized deadlines: for most students, including those heading to four-year colleges or universities, the FAFSA and SGF should be filed by the May 1 deadline. For those attending community colleges, business, trade, or technical schools, or institutions with rolling admissions, deadlines may vary. Missing the deadline can mean missing out on significant aid.

After submitting the forms, PHEAA might contact students for additional documentation. If that happens, students are advised to respond as soon as possible–ideally before April 1, 2026, for the 2025-26 award year–to keep their application on track.

Once the SGF is complete, students are taken to a confirmation page and can review their application status in their AES account. If there are outstanding items or questions, alerts and messages will appear in the system.

“If your school’s saying it’s not complete, if you got that confirmation, we will ask. If we’re looking for more information on anything involving the state grant, we will go out and send this to you in an email,” the presenters explained.

The agency is prepared for questions, offering help by email: granthelp@pheaa.org or phone (800-692-7392), and points families to more resources on the PHEAA website. For those new to the process, PHEAA’s network of Higher Education Access Partners covers every county in Pennsylvania, providing guidance and support.

One final piece of advice echoed throughout the webinar: don’t wait for a perfect scenario. As Deutsch put it, “I always tell people to at least apply once.” Even if you think your family might not qualify, filing opens the door to grants, scholarships, and aid that might otherwise go unclaimed.

For families and students staring down the maze of financial aid paperwork, PHEAA’s approach is about breaking it down, step by step, and providing a lifeline when the process gets confusing. The process can feel daunting, but with clear instructions and a little persistence, the path to college funding gets much clearer.

And if there’s a snag? There’s always someone to call, an email to send, or a webinar to join, with the goal of making higher education possible for as many Pennsylvanians as possible.