The 2024-2025 FAFSA is changing. Here’s what seniors need to know.

According to ABC News, FAFSA’s restructuring is in an effort to streamline the application process for federal student aid. This reshaping effort led to major changes in the form itself, its availability, and its timeline.

The first major change the public learned of was the opening date getting pushed back. Originally set to open in October, the FAFSA form did not become available until December 31st where it entered a soft launch stage. During the soft launch, the form will only be available for a limited period of time throughout the day. According to the Federal Student Aid home site, this is so the site can “initiate pauses for site maintenance and make technical updates”.

Although there may be some technical glitches during the first few weeks, the Federal Student Aid home site assures that if students are able to access the form and fill it out, the information will be saved and they won’t have to resubmit later. If users can’t access the form, try again later as there are still frequent periods where the form is not open.

Once the FAFSA is submitted on studentaid.gov they will hold that information until the end of January before they begin sending info to schools. There is no rush to complete the FAFSA form as all schools will begin to receive students’ information at the same time.

Before beginning to fill out the FAFSA form, be sure to create a secure account on studentaid.gov as this will also be the user’s FSA ID. The Federal Student Aid Home site says, “Every person who is adding information to the form must create their own FSA ID as it contains personal verification info”. It will take one to three days for this process to finish to make sure everyone who is adding to the form creates their account before beginning to fill it out.

Another change that is going into effect this year is the requirement that federal tax information be imported directly from the IRS. According to ABC News, this was an option in previous years that is now required.

In order to allow the federal tax information to be imported directly from the IRS all contributors (anyone who adds to the form -determined by dependency status, tax filing status, and marital status) must provide consent and approval. Being named a contributor does not mean that you will be expected to contribute any money. This is required for everyone regardless of if the contributor has a social security number or has filed federal taxes before.

If consent and approval is not provided by all contributors the recipient will not be eligible for Federal Aid.

The FAFSA has been changed in the hopes of expanding its accessibility and reach. One way this has done this is by allowing students’ information to be sent to 20 schools as opposed to in previous years when it was only possible to send it to 10 schools.

According to ABC news, another way the FAFSA has become more accessible is by increasing the number of languages it is available in. Where it was only available in English and Spanish in previous years, it is now available in 11 of the most commonly used languages.

With the changes to the format there have also been some changes in how federal aid is handed out. Increased aid will no longer be available for families with multiple children in schools.

Individual colleges and career schools will still be the ones making the decision on how much aid to grant, but more opportunities are opening up for higher Pell Grants (the largest federal aid program available for undergraduate students) and more opportunities to receive one.

According to ABC News “an estimated 610,000 new students will be eligible for a grant. It will also allow 1.5 million more students to receive the maximum Pell Grant award, which will bring the number of students who are eligible for the maximum award to over 5.2 million.”

Some families are hesitant to fill out the FAFSA, believing that it wont do them any good or that it is too much work. Hopefully the new and improved FAFSA form will convince more people to apply for eligibility for federal student aid by being more efficient and rewarding.

RAHS is also offering free support in navigating the FAFSA.  According to the RAHS Weekly Bulletin seniors will have the opportunity to meet with the college navigator or counselors on Tuesday, 1/16 to fill out their FAFSAs.  It is recommended that students create their FSA ID beforehand.  To sign up for FAFSA Day fill out this form.

The College and Career Center is offering further support in January after school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 2:40-4:00pm.  Email RAHS’s College Navigator Jessica Hammond for more details about the after school sessions.

Sources referenced:

“What to know about changes to this year’s FAFSA application for college students” by Adriana Morga, ABC News