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Students seeking financial aid for college are required to complete the U.S. Department of Education’s FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), which can be accessed online in digital format. Applications must be completed at different times into September in order to obtain money for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Through FAFSA, applicants can obtain loans and grants and work study program participation. Work study programs allow students to work part-time for some of their bachelor degree costs. Grants, like scholarships, are near-outright gifts. The Pell grant, one of the federal government’s best known, provides eligible undergraduate students as much as $5,000-plus.

Grant and scholarship recipients and those benefitting from work study program assistance can also obtain loans to pay for college costs. Students must repay loans, but the federal government offers low interest rates. Loans with little or no interest attached are known as “subsidized.”

The U.S. Congress each year sets aside billions of dollars to help students attend college. Federal assistance has been a tradition since at least 1965, when then-U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Higher Education Act into law to improve colleges and universities and make them more accessible. The Pell grant, born the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant in 1972, was later named for Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI), for his help in initiating it. In 2007, a law known as the College Cost Reduction and Access Act increased Pell grant money and reduced subsidized loan interest rates.

Online FAFSA applicants must be American citizens and eligible non-citizens who’ve earned high school diplomas or General Educational Development (GED) certificates and who are taking courses at colleges, universities and trade and technical schools toward certain online bachelor degree and certificate programs. Applicants completing forms can expect to next receive Student Aid Reports telling how much their share of college costs would be. Then, they can touch base with the financial aid offices at the colleges of their choice.

Colleges tend to provide financial aid as well, and financial aid offices provide students with notices of how much assistance they’re expected to receive from various sources. This, along with affordability and a school that’s a good match for a student’s needs, should be a part of the college selection process, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

It’s important to keep in mind that government grants, or online FAFSA grant money as they’re sometimes referred, isn’t entirely free: Beneficiaries are expected to fulfill certain academic requirements.

An online FAFSA worksheet allows applicants to determine their eligibility for assistance towards their online degree and online bachelor degree, while links take the Web site’s visitors to additional financial aid sources, such as the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs that offers funding credits in exchange for community service.