Financial aid deadline just hours away

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Wednesday marks an important deadline for college students or those entering college in the fall.

The State Student Financial Aid deadline is midnight Wednesday night.

The state of Indiana is helping to make the process easier for those still hoping to apply. The organization " Learn More Indiana " started a campaign called "Cash for College."

State leaders are concerned by the growing number of students who submit their Federal Financial Aid forms "after" the Indiana deadline.

Liz Crouch of "Learn More Indiana" explained, "Last year, we had over 350,000 families apply for this aid, but half of them missed the deadline. So it's important that we make sure that they know Wednesday is the last day to file if they want to be eligible for state money."

In order to qualify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid must be filled out first. There's more than $250 million in "state" aid available.

That's in addition to the $83 billion the federal government awards in financial aid.

Still, there are many people who do not apply because they think they're not eligible especially if a household has two working parents.

"The FAFSA not only looks at a family's income, but it looks at a number of other variables such as how many students they have in college at that time. And say also a family's situation were to change from now until their student enrolls in college. They filed the FAFSA and have it filed on time, then they can go back in and make those edits accordingly," said Crouch.