For many families already reeling from the economic slowdown the thought of financing college is overwhelming.

Federal student loans are fixed-rate loans guaranteed by the federal government and come in different shapes and sizes. But nit-picky rules and pages of instructions make the process no walk in the park. 

Here are five tips from government aid experts to help make the federal loan process easy to navigate.

File Early

To find out what kind of student loan you are eligible for, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

After your FAFSA is complete, your school’s financial aid office will notify you of how much aid you qualify for. At that time you have the right to accept all, none, or part of the loan.

Experts agree submitting a FAFSA form early is in your best interest since aid is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Schools and states have separate deadlines than the federal government,” says Dorian Rose, spokesperson for the Federal Student Aid Information Center.  “[If you don’t file early], the student loses out on whatever state grant or school-based programs that may be available.”

Reecy Aresty, author of How to Pay Less for College, Without Going Broke, explains there is a finite amount of money available for aid, so applying early will dictate how much you will receive.

“The sooner you’re in the system, the more you’re going to be able to get,” he says. “You might qualify for the same amount of money, even if you apply at a later date, but there may not be any more of a certain type of aid three or four months down the road.”

You May Have to Verify Your Information

Some government agencies will ask for additional documents to verify personal information and income provided on FASFA forms.

 “The government will usually ask for tax returns and there is also a federal verification worksheet they would need to complete,” says Virginia Hazen, director of financial aid at Dartmouth College. 

Make sure you keep potential documents handy to make copies of and send out. 

Better Late Than Never 

Although school is already in session, it’s not too late to file a FAFSA form.

“If a student hasn’t filed now, they should still file,” says Haley Chitty, spokesperson for the National Association for Student Financial Aid and Administrators. “At this point, probably the best thing to do would be to go to the financial aid office and speak to an administrator. 

Chitty says an administrator should know what loans are available for the student and what they might be eligible for.

When in Doubt, File 

If you are on the fence about what your plans will look like in a year, file for student aid anyway.

“Whether you’re going to go or not going to go, if you are contemplating, submit the application,” says Rose. “If you don’t use it that year, that doesn’t affect you going into the next year. You can put down as many schools as you may be interested in and when you determine which one would be best for you.”

On the application, you will be asked what kind of aid you are interested in receiving, Rose suggests that you request all forms of aid available.

“You can always say no, I don’t want to be responsible for loans,” he says. “But if you forget to put [you want all forms of aid] on there, it’s a lot more of a process.”

Changing Your Loan Package

If your financial situation takes a turn for the worse and you’ve already filed for aid based on your family’s income from last year--don’t fret.

“You can appeal your financial aid award,” says Chitty. “Your financial aid administrator can go in and adjust your financial aid application based on the latest information.”

Aresty explains that you might be qualified to receive more assistance once you refile. “In many cases, the school will take into consideration how much [the family] really could have afforded for the first semester and give them an additional credit for the second semester, he says.”