The college admissions process is stressful enough. Even as acceptance letters roll in, you barely have time to catch a break before the next decision looms: How to pay the tuition bill. And it’s only been more stressful this year as the Department of Education rolled out a new FAFSA form rife with technical glitches.
FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is designed to help students shoulder the cost of college by determining a family’s eligibility for financial aid, including scholarships, grants, work-study programs and loans. With the price tag for full-time, four-year undergraduate programs rings in at an average of $22,100 per year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, you may need all the help you can get. Here’s what you need to navigate the new FAFSA process.
What’s going on with FAFSA this year?
Beginning in 2021, the Department of Education began implementing changes so families could more easily apply for financial assistance to attend a college, trade or career school.
The FAFSA Simplification Act, passed in 2021, overhauled the FAFSA form. Among the changes:
- The number of questions was reduced from 103 to 18.
- The FAFSA is now also available in 11 of the most common languages in the US.
- An updated formula, the Student Aid Index (SAI), replaces Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for determining how much a family can contribute.
- If a student’s legal parents aren’t married and don’t live together, the parent that provides the most financial support is now considered the contributor for a dependent student.
During a typical academic year, the FAFSA application period opens on Oct. 1 for the following school year. However, the US Department of Education’s changes to the 2024-2025 FAFSA form ran into technical issues, including many that are still ongoing. Schools only began this month to receive the financial information needed to determine student aid eligibility -- and now it turns out even some of the data delivered before March 21 may be incorrect.
“The delays in processing the FAFSA has put tremendous strain on everyone – from students and parents to the schools themselves,” says James Lewis, CEO and co-founder of National Society of High School Scholars. “The delays mean that many students aren’t finding out what kind of financial support they’ll receive until after they need to choose a college.”
To accommodate the delay, many colleges are pushing out acceptance and FAFSA deadlines. Lewis recommends checking with schools for updates about financial aid eligibility and enrollment decisions.
Wait, what is FAFSA?
The FAFSA is the primary method the government and schools use to determine if you’re eligible for financial aid, including grants, scholarships, work-study benefits and loans. The federal government processes FAFSA forms to qualify for federal student aid, but
FAFSA information can also be used by states and schools for awards, scholarships and other types of financial aid. You can access the official 2024-2025 FAFSA form here (PDF).
How does FAFSA help me get federal student aid?
Based on the answers you provide to questions on the FAFSA, the financial aid office calculates your SAI. This analysis takes into account the student’s, spouse’s and parents’ incomes and assets to determine the expected family contribution towards college costs.
The unmet financial need that remains could qualify you for different types of assistance, such as a federal student grant or loan to attend an educational institution.
Federal financial aid eligibility requirements
Your school’s financial aid department will likely encourage you to complete the FAFSA, but here are a few basic eligibility criteria to know before you submit.
1. Attendance or enrollment status
You must be attending or planning to attend college or career school during the academic year for which you’re completing the FAFSA. Continued enrollment may rely on maintaining satisfactory academic progress.
2. US citizenship or eligible noncitizen status
As long as you have a Social Security number or a green card, you should be eligible for financial aid. Other immigration statuses may be exempt so check the student aid website for more information.
Part of the issue with the new FAFSA form is that it did not initially allow families to submit an application unless the student and parents each had a Social Security number. The Department of Education says that a parent without a Social Security number can now access a student’s 2024-2025 FAFSA form after being invited.
3. Access to tax information
You and anyone from your family identified as a contributor must consent to share tax information from the IRS with the FAFSA. This applies even if the contributor doesn’t have citizenship status or a valid Social Security number.
4. Establish a studentaid.gov account
To complete the FAFSA online, you and each of your contributors need to have an account at studentaid.gov, which generates an FSA ID.
Who should apply for the FAFSA?
All college students, regardless of income, should complete the updated FAFSA. Even if you think your family makes too much money to qualify, the FAFSA is often required when applying for financial assistance that isn’t need-based.
And because of the FAFSA Simplification Act, it’s worth it to apply even if your family wasn’t eligible for federal aid in previous years, according to Lewis. The methodology used to determine whether a family qualifies for aid changed with the 2024-2025 FAFSA.
“More students will be eligible for need-based Pell Grants, which you don’t have to repay,” he said, noting that the new criteria expands access to the grants by linking family size and the federal poverty level.
How to fill out the FAFSA: A step-by-step guide
Getting money from the government to help with the cost of college is clearly a benefit that’s worth a little extra paperwork. Here’s how to make filling out the new FAFSA a simple process.
Step 1: Gather documentation
You’ll need to provide the following basic personal and financial information to complete the FAFSA:
- Date of birth
- Social Security number
- Address
- Email address
- Driver’s license number
- Latest tax filings
- Current bank account balances
- Net worth and other assets
You’ll also be asked which schools you want your FAFSA information shared with, so keep your college list handy.
Step 2: Create a FSA ID
An FSA ID gives you access to studentaid.gov, where you can find the FAFSA form, and it serves as your legal signature on electronic documents. To create an account, students will need their email address and Social Security number (unless you’re a citizen of the Freely Associated States).
Step 3: Alert your contributors
Contributors (typically parents) and students must each create their own login. Let contributors know you’ll need their email address to send a new account request. Setting up an FSA ID is helpful for contributors because it allows the transfer of tax information from the IRS and clears the way for eligibility for federal student aid.
Contributors will need their email address, which must be different from the student’s, and Social Security number, if they have one.
Step 4: Complete the FAFSA
The student applying for financial aid should always complete the FAFSA form first. Spouses and parents will be able to add their information once the student section of the FAFSA is complete. Before you sign and submit the form, you’ll be able to review answers and specify which schools should receive your FAFSA information.
Step 5: Check your status
You can monitor the status of a new application or a FAFSA renewal with your studentaid.gov account (using your FSA ID) under the My Activity page. You’ll also be notified when contributors sign and complete sections.
Pro tip
Make sure you and your contributors submit the form quickly, or at least keep saving your work as you go along. Saved FAFSA applications are automatically deleted from the system after 45 days of inactivity.
When is FAFSA due?
It would be nice if there was a universal FAFSA deadline, but that’s not the case. The deadline for federal financial aid eligibility is the end of an academic year, so for the 2024-2025 school year it’s June 30, 2025. But every school (and every state) sets its own deadline.
Due to the ongoing problems with the FAFSA form this year, many states and colleges have extended their deadlines and continue to do so. For example, California has extended its FAFSA deadline twice this year -- it’s currently May 2.
Although many colleges distribute grants and scholarships on a first-come-first-served basis, you can still qualify for federal financial aid if you submit your application by June 30, 2025.
FAQs
The FAFSA helps determine your eligibility for federal financial aid. It provides information to the federal and state government as well as colleges and community organizations to help them decide if you qualify for loans, grants, work study programs and other types of financial assistance.
There is no income cutoff or threshold that disqualifies you from federal student aid. This is why all students are encouraged to complete the FAFSA regardless of their income, marital status or other factors.
Many colleges have early deadlines so they can prioritize distributing funding to students in need, but your state may also have deadlines for submitting the FAFSA. However, many deadlines have been extended for the 2024-2025 academic year due to glitches with the FAFSA form. If you miss a deadline, contact the school’s financial aid office.
If you’re a dependent student, you’ll be asked to supply the contact information of your biological or adoptive parents. Your contributor will be asked to set up their own account and consent to sharing their IRS information, so you are not required to know your parents’ income to complete the student portion of the FAFSA. If you’re an independent student, you don’t have to supply your parents’ information.
