Yesterday was Day 3 of the annual FAFSA application challenge – where I help you get through submitting your FAFSA in a timely fashion.

Today is the one more small task, before the we get to plug and chug day. How are you holding up so far? You are making progress, you can do this.

Today we are gathering or creating ID’s, and passwords.

Back on Day 1, you as the parent created a throw away email address. Now that you’ve got that, it’s time to start using it.

It’s also another day your soon-to-be adult should be present and helping you, because many pieces have a parent ID, a student ID, or both.

1. (Optional) Student throw-away email address creation

Depending on your status for #2 (you can read ahead), your student may want to create a throw-away email address too, just like you did on Day 1.

2. College Board email address.

Is your student going to apply for any Institutional Method (IM) schools or Consensus Method (CM) schools? If so, then you need an email address to use for this application, and it’s considered a student email address. Did your student already take the SAT, PSAT, or AP tests? If so, that’s the email address that is already on file with the College Board, and that’s the email address and password you’ll need. If your student hasn’t done any of those things, then have the student create a throw away email address for this process (it will be the same one you’ll use for the FAFSA).

Caveat emptor! The College Board does not use a parent’s email address. Student needs to either be EXTREMELY responsible about checking this email daily and passing along all important information to the parents, or the parents need to be given access to this account for such checking, because you don’t want to miss any vital communication from the College Board.

3. Student FSA ID creation

Have your student use their College Board registered email address to create an FSA ID (user ID) and password.

4. Parent FSA ID creation

Same link, parents need a separate FSA ID. Use the throw-away email address you created on Day 1.

5. Document

All of these account ID’s and passwords can be very difficult to retrieve. Just like you don’t want to have to try to figure out what your Social Security number is, you don’t want to have to be stuck trying to figure out what these pieces are. Document these IDs and passwords carefully.

Coming up next is your heavy lifting day. Make sure to clear a chunk of time on your calendar and have a clear work space for all of the paperwork you gathered on Day 3. If your teen is fussing about having to be involved, you can reassure them you don’t need them for the next part, and then send them to mow the lawn as punishment for fussing.

Don’t forget to check out my other articles about college. I’ll see you again tomorrow for FAFSA application challenge Day 5.