You applied early decision and you expect to hear back from your college in mid-December, after which you're expected to accept pretty quickly. And the FAFSA doesn't come out until Dec. 1. How do you know if you should accept when the college won't be able to calculate your financial aid award?

Your financial aid award has two pieces:

• Institutional scholarships and grants-- those coming from the college itself

• Federal funds which can include Pell grants, work-study and student loans

Most colleges that offer Early Decision use the CSS Profile or their own institutional forms. This allows them to provide an aid award including only institutional aid, since the CSS Profile is the form they use to allocate institutional aid.

Based on data in the student's Profile, the college can estimate whether the student is likely to be eligible for federal aid, and will typically note that on the aid award if so. Once the student files the FAFSA, the college can confirm that eligibility with an updated aid award.

Students applying ED should confirm two dates with the college:

• The FAFSA due date. Technically students can file the FAFSA at any time, but in order for federal dollars to be included in the aid package it will need to be filed by a date set by the college.

• The due date of the student's deposit. Typically for ED this is Feb. 15 but some colleges might be different.

It's crucial that the student have their full aid package before accepting admission, so make sure that you submit the FAFSA on time after it's available.

If you are applying ED to a college that only uses the FAFSA and financial aid is important, it's crucial to meet those deadlines so that you're not blindly paying a deposit and keeping your fingers crossed that the dollars come at some point.

You can appeal an ED financial aid award; however, the timeline tends to be limited and you have far less leverage because you don't have competing awards.