Financial Aid Terms Defined

Here is a list of Financial Aid Terms and their definitions. Sources for these definitions are listed at the bottom of the page.
FAFSA: an acronym for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a form that can be prepared annually by current and prospective college students (undergraduate and graduate) in the United States to determine their eligibility for student financial aid (including the Pell Grant, Federal student loans & Federal Work-Study.)
Undergraduate: is a term used to define any student obtaining an Associates Degree, Bachelors Degree or Technical Trade certificate. Basically the first four years of school.
Graduate Student: Any student applying for a higher degree, post Bachelors ie a Master's Degree or Doctorate.
Pell Grant: Started in 1965, named after a democrat senator from Rhode Island, the PELL is the starter money for any student's financial aid package. This is considered a grant, which the sudent does not have to pay back. All other financial aid is added to this package. The amount of the pell is determined by your SAR, FAFSA, and EFC.
SAR or Student Aid Report: is the summary from the responses on the FAFSA, this document is sent to the student for review and to the college. This information is used to determine the student's amount of aid needed. The EFC can be found in this report.
EFC or Expected Family Contribution: This is the number associated with each student, found in their SAR (Student Aid Report) and it determines how much aid a student needs and how much that student or family is expected to contribute to their education costs. The lower the EFC the higher the federal and college aid may be, lowest is 0 and highest is 99,999.
The Federal Work Study Program: is another grant where a student can recieve a job from the college and 75% of their wages are reimbursed by the Federal Government. This is an option on your FAFSA, if you are interested in applying then check the YES box and talk to your financial aid department for where their job listings on campus are located.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAFSA
http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/fws/index.html
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/ifap/index.jsp