Papermoon,

You do not get money right away. Once you finalize your school, the process really starts taking some shape. Basically, school will ask if you have applied for Fafsa or not. If you did, school will "get in touch" with Fasfa and Fafsa follows up with you. Fafsa will provide you with different options of financial depending on your need.

So like Little Buddha mentioned, get started on your PINs, applications et cetera - you will see whole process unfold infront of your eyes, sort of like magic :-).