Demonstrating Financial Need
What’s the Student Aid Index (SAI)?
Your SAI is an index number that college financial aid staff use to determine how much financial aid you would receive if you were to attend their school. The information you report on your FAFSA form is used to calculate your SAI.
The is calculated according to a formula established by law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets, and benefits (such as unemployment or Social Security) all could be considered in the formula. Also considered are your family size and the number of family members who will attend college or career school during the year.
*Your SAI is not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college, nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by your school to calculate how much financial aid you are eligible to receive.
How to calculate your Student Aid Index?
- Create an FSA ID and Password (https://studentaid.gov/)
- Complete your most recent FAFSA
- After processing your FAFSA, you will receive a FAFSA Submission Summary.
- Login to FAFSA with your FSA ID and Password
- Locate and “View or Print your Summary that will show you your SAI number.
- Print page or create pdf of the pages that show your name and the SAI number. You then
upload the pdf file with your scholarship documents.