As a result of the FAFSA Simplification Act, the FAFSA is changing for the 2024-2025 academic year. The goal of the changes is to expand access to Federal financial aid and streamline the FAFSA process for students and families.
Timeline
- The FAFSA application is now available to complete. We recommend that you plan to complete the FAFSA as soon as you are able.
- Colleges and universities expect to begin receiving processed FAFSA records during the first half of March.
- We expect to begin mailing financial aid packages for new incoming students in late April.
New Terms
Student Aid Index (SAI): A number calculated based on FAFSA data that helps measure the level of a student's financial need. The SAI replaces the EFC that was used previously.
Contributor: A student, spouse of a student, parent, or spouse of a parent who is required to provide information on a FAFSA. A contributor will be required to sign the FAFSA and consent to have their Federal tax information transferred directly into the FAFSA.
IRS Direct Data Exchange (DDX): A process that transfers Federal tax information directly from the IRS into a FAFSA. The process was previously known as IRS Data Retrieval.
FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS): A summary of the information from a completed FAFSA. This summary was previously known as a Student Aid Report (SAR).
A Few Important Changes to Know
- All contributors will be required to have an FSA ID. We recommend that you create your FSA ID early if you do not already have one.
- All contributors will be required to consent to have their Federal tax information transferred directly into the FAFSA, even if they did not file a tax return for 2022. If any contributor does not provide consent, the student will not be eligible to receive Federal financial aid.
- Family size on the FAFSA will automatically be populated using information from the 2022 Federal tax return. If your family size has changed or is different than the number of people claimed on that Federal tax return, there will be an option to manually enter an updated number.
- If a student's parents are divorced or separated, the parent who provided the most support to the student in the previous twelve months will be the parent whose information will be used on the FAFSA. It will no longer matter which parent the student lived with.
- If a FAFSA is started, not submitted, and has no activity for 45 days, the FAFSA will be deleted by the Department of Education.