Application Procedures for MAP

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) serves as the application for the MAP Grant. Each student who reports Illinois as his/her state of legal residence automatically applies for MAP when completing the FAFSA annually. The FAFSA should be completed as soon as possible after January 1 prior to the academic year that starts on or after July 1. MAP award calculations will be done only for those Illinois students who list a MAP eligible school as one of their six school choices on the FAFSA.

The Central Processing System (CPS), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), uses the FAFSA data to determine the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) by using the Federal Methodology formula. The student's family financial information (the FAFSA data) is made available to ISAC to calculate MAP eligibility.

After completing a FAFSA (electronic or paper), students will receive an official output document called a Student Aid Report (SAR). An e-mail Notification of Processing is sent to the applicant within 1-3 days of processing with a link to access and print an electronic SAR (e-SAR), if the student provides an e-mail address. A SAR Acknowledgement is mailed to the applicant if the FAFSA is filed via FAFSA on the Web but an e-mail address is not provided. The schools that are listed by the student on the FAFSA receive the same data electronically via an Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). Corrections to data must be made by the school via the electronic ISIR, or by the student on the SAR and mailed back to the CPS or electronically via FAFSA on the Web. Corrected applicant information is forwarded from the CPS to ISAC. ISAC maintains the student's most recent data in its system.